Advanced Custom Fields: Sorting Posts Order by ACF Custom Field, Then by Date

Sorting posts order by ACF custom field in WordPress may be extremely useful for prioritizing specific content based on metadata. Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) allows you to store custom data in posts and dynamically order them. In this article, we’ll look at how to sort posts order by custom field first, and then by post date.

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Why should I order by ACF field?

Using ACF fields for ordering is useful when you have:

• Custom ranking fields (such as priority, rating, and featured level).
• Event dates, where upcoming events should be listed first.
• When sorting products or real estate listings using price fields.
• Any custom numeric or textual sorting.

By default, WordPress arranges posts by their publishing date; but with ACF, we can set a custom order logic.

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WordPress Query: Order by ACF Custom Field and Then by Date

The following snippet sorts posts first order by a custom field (e.g., priority) and then by the post date in descending order:

$args = array(
    'post_type'      => 'post', // Change to your post type
    'posts_per_page' => -1, // Fetch all posts
    'meta_key'       => 'priority', // ACF custom field name
    'orderby'        => array(
        'meta_value' => 'DESC', // Order by custom field
        'date'       => 'DESC', // Order by date if custom field values are equal
    ),
    'order'          => 'DESC',
);

$query = new WP_Query($args);

if ($query->have_posts()) :
    while ($query->have_posts()) : $query->the_post();
        the_title('<h2>', '</h2>');
    endwhile;
    wp_reset_postdata();
endif;

Explanation:

• meta_key: Specifies which ACF field is used for sorting.
• orderby:
  • meta_value: Orders posts by the ACF field value.
  • date: If two posts have the same field value, they are sorted by date.
• order: DESC means highest values first (change to ASC for lowest first).

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Sorting Numeric ACF Fields Properly

If your ACF field is storing numeric values (e.g., prices, rankings), you should use meta_value_num instead of meta_value. This ensures numbers are sorted correctly instead of alphabetically.

$args = array(
    'post_type'      => 'post',
    'posts_per_page' => -1,
    'meta_key'       => 'priority',
    'orderby'        => array(
        'meta_value_num' => 'DESC', // Numeric sorting
        'date'           => 'DESC',
    ),
    'order'          => 'DESC',
);

Note: This method prevents issues where, for example, 10 appears before 2 in the order.

Sorting Events by ACF Date Field

For events, where you want to list upcoming ones first, use a date field and compare it to today’s date:

$args = array(
    'post_type'      => 'events',
    'posts_per_page' => -1,
    'meta_key'       => 'event_date',
    'orderby'        => array(
        'meta_value' => 'ASC', // Oldest events first
        'date'       => 'DESC',
    ),
    'order'          => 'ASC',
    'meta_query'     => array(
        array(
            'key'     => 'event_date',
            'value'   => date('Ymd'),
            'compare' => '>=',
            'type'    => 'NUMERIC',
        )
    ),
);

Explanation:

• Filters out past events (compare => '>=' ensures only future dates are considered).
• Orders by event_date in ascending order so that the nearest event appears first.
• Uses meta_value for date comparison.

Using Pre_get_posts for Global Sorting

If you want to modify the default order for all queries (e.g., blog pages, archives), use pre_get_posts instead:

function custom_query_order( $query ) {
    if (!is_admin() && $query->is_main_query()) {
        if ($query->is_post_type_archive('post')) {
            $query->set('meta_key', 'priority');
            $query->set('orderby', array(
                'meta_value_num' => 'DESC',
                'date'           => 'DESC',
            ));
            $query->set('order', 'DESC');
        }
    }
}
add_action('pre_get_posts', 'custom_query_order');

This will apply the ordering rule to all post queries automatically.

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Conclusion

Sorting WordPress posts order by an ACF field gives you powerful control over content ranking. Whether it’s prioritizing featured posts, listing upcoming events, or sorting by price, the right WP_Query approach makes it possible.

Key Takeaways:

• Use meta_value for text-based fields.
• Use meta_value_num for numeric fields.
• Use pre_get_posts to apply sorting globally.
• Use meta_query to filter specific dates (for event-based sorting).

Thanks for reading 🙏, I hope you will get this code snippet helpful for your project.

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