WP_Query meta query where date wrong result

Question

I've a custom post field called myplugin_date the value in the database looks like 01.07.2019 . I'm trying to get all post where this value is before today. My query looks like this:

$query = new WP_Query([
    'cat' => $category,
    'order_by' => 'date',
    'order' => 'asc',
    'posts_per_page' => $displayCount,
    'page' => $page,
    'offset' => $offset,
    'meta_query' => [
        'key' => 'myplugin_date',
        'value' => date("d.m.Y"),
        'compare' => '<',
        'type' => 'DATE',
    ],
]);

The problem is that I get also posts where the date defined in the custom field is after today. What is going wrong?

Answer 1

When you use meta_query you have to use two-dimensional array, like this:

$query = new WP_Query([
    'cat' => $category,
    'order_by' => 'date',
    'order' => 'asc',
    'posts_per_page' => $displayCount,
    'page' => $page,
    'offset' => $offset,
    'meta_query' => [
        [
            'key' => 'myplugin_date',
            'value' => date("d.m.Y"),
            'compare' => '<',
            'type' => 'DATE',
        ]  
    ],
]);