get_terms should support term descriptions

[AaronCampbell]

Right now you can't use get_terms to get terms based on description. I think it should treat description just like name, so I added a description__like argument that works just like the name__like argument. In my case, I wanted only terms that had a description, so I called it like this:

$args = array('description__like' => '_');
get_terms('post_tag', $args);

[AaronCampbell]

Adds descriptionlike arg to get_terms

[filosofo]

Wouldn't it be more useful if the searched-for term could be matched anywhere in the description? The way you have it, whatever description__like is set to would have to appear at the beginning of the description.

Maybe call it instead search__description have it be like this:

$where .= " AND tt.description LIKE '%{$search__description}%'";

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

Replying to filosofo:

Wouldn't it be more useful if the searched-for term could be matched anywhere in the description? The way you have it, whatever description__like is set to would have to appear at the beginning of the description.

it does. from a performance standpoint, though, if this gets heavily used and an index is used on the description field, it won't be used in the query unless it's anchored to the beginning of the string.

[janeforshort]

Punting due to time constraints. Will reconsider in future dev cycle.

[aaroncampbell]

I just refreshed the patch. It still matches only the beginning of the description just like name__like only matches the beginning of the name. I know it's somewhat limiting but performance-wise it seems better. Maybe we should also consider adding tt.description to the search? Something like:

if ( !empty($search) ) {
	$search = like_escape($search);
	$where .= " AND (t.name LIKE '%$search%' OR tt.description LIKE '%$search%')";
}

[aaroncampbell]

The latest patch (8214.diff​) is just refreshed for trunk. It still makes description__like work JUST like name__like in get_terms().

[wonderboymusic]

Refreshed against trunk, was blowing up. None of our wildcard queries are optimal

[wonderboymusic]

In 25241:

Introduce description__like arg to get_terms(). Make description__like and name__like perform LIKEs with a wildcard on both sides of passed string. Previously, strings had to match the beginning of the name, so searching for burrito in This is a burrito would fail. Adds unit tests.

Props aaroncampbell for the original patch, 5 years ago.
Fixes #8214.