Check if string exists in meta key string using meta_query check in wordpress get_posts function

[admin]

OK you would think this is a fairly trivial piece of code, but it is not working.

The code below is not broken, it is just not working as it should.

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Ok, in wordpress I have a custom field in my custom post-type: <strong>individual</strong>, this custom field has a meta_key of: <strong>login_email</strong>

The contents of this meta_key is simply email addresses.

Here are some examples of the contents..

bob.dougal[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

or..

[email protected], [email protected]

or even just a single email string..

[email protected]

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OK, so now you seen the string contents of the custom field. I can explain what I am trying to achieve.

I have this variable...

$current_user_email = $current_user->user_login;

Which is a single email address string.

I then need to find if this email address exists within the meta_key contents. So this how I've done it...

$lastposts = get_posts(array(
    'posts_per_page'    => 1,
    'post_type'         => 'individual',
    'post_status'       => 'private',
    'meta_query'        => array(
        array(
            'key' => 'login_email',
            'value' => $current_user_email,
            'compare' => 'IN'
        )
    )
));

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In my example above, if I echo

$current_user_email

it outputs

[email protected]

But even though [email protected] exists in one of the custom fields like this...

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

, my get_post returns nothing.

If I then go to the post editor and remove all the other emails from the custom field so

[email protected]

is the only text in the custom field, then the above query works!

My question is, how can I get meta_query to find

[email protected]

within a meta_key which contains this string:

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Because '<strong>IN</strong>' is not doing what it is meant to.

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Code taken from <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Custom_Field_Parameters" rel="nofollow">http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Custom_Field_Parameters</a>

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Thanks