WP_Query: second parameter in meta_query being ignored

Question

The second meta_query parameter is being ignored in this query.

$query = new WP_Query(array(
        'post_type' => 'events',
        'meta_query' => array(
            'relation' => 'OR',
            array(
                'key'     => 'event_date',
                'value'   => date('Ymd'),
                'compare' => '>=',
            ),
            array(
                'key'     => 'end_date',
                'value'   => date('Ymd'),
                'compare' => '>=',
            )
        )
    ));

There is no mention of end_date in the resulting SQL

SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS inx9uju_posts.ID
FROM inx9uju_posts
INNER JOIN inx9uju_postmeta ON ( inx9uju_posts.ID = inx9uju_postmeta.post_id )
INNER JOIN inx9uju_postmeta AS mt1 ON ( inx9uju_posts.ID = mt1.post_id )
WHERE 1=1
AND ( inx9uju_postmeta.meta_key = 'event_date' AND ( mt1.meta_key = 'event_date' AND CAST(mt1.meta_value AS SIGNED) > '20180703' ) )
AND inx9uju_posts.post_type = 'events'
AND (inx9uju_posts.post_status = 'publish'
OR inx9uju_posts.post_status = 'acf-disabled'
OR inx9uju_posts.post_status = 'private')
GROUP BY inx9uju_posts.ID
ORDER BY inx9uju_postmeta.meta_value+0 ASC LIMIT 0, 30

I've spent some time checking syntax and referring to the codex but I can't see what is wrong with my code. I can't see any reason why it would be ignoring the end_date part of the meta_query parameters.

UPDATE

In this particular case I was overriding the meta_query part of the query in a separate function which was hooking into pre_get_posts . Once I updated that function, the issue was resolved.

Answer 1

If this is stored as an AFC, you must use the ACF syntax of Ymd (20180703).

You must also realise that WordPress can detect the BETWEEN meta_compare to detect two dates as such.