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delete_post_meta( int $post_id, string $meta_key, mixed $meta_value = '' ): bool

Since
1.5.0
Source
wp-includes/post.php:2675
Deletes a post meta field for the given post ID.

Description

You can match based on the key, or key and value. Removing based on key and value, will keep from removing duplicate metadata with the same key. It also allows removing all metadata matching the key, if needed.

For historical reasons both the meta key and the meta value are expected to be "slashed" (slashes escaped) on input.

Compatibility

WordPress
since 1.5.0
PHP
7.4–8.6-dev
  • 6.7.7
  • 6.8.8
  • 6.9.7
  • 7.0.4
  • 7.1.0

Present in every tracked release (6.7.7 to 7.1.0), and compiles on PHP 7.4 through 8.6-dev.

Parameters

$post_idint
Post ID.
$meta_keystring
Metadata name.
$meta_valuemixedoptional
Metadata value. If provided, rows will only be removed that match the value.
Must be serializable if non-scalar. Default empty.Default: ''

Return value

bool
True on success, false on failure.

Performance profile

How much work a call to delete_post_meta() does, and what it touches: the algorithmic scaling, the Zend instruction count per call across PHP versions, the hooks it hands control to, and the core code that calls it. Measured from the compiled opcodes, not a stopwatch, so every number is identical on any machine running the same PHP version, and every function in core is ranked by cost.

Cost class
Light

Only touches the object cache, via wp_cache_delete_multiple().

Scaling
Constant

No loop in the body: the same number of instructions runs whatever you pass in.

Instructions
15–16

Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 16.

Plugin surface
None

Nothing here hands control to plugin code.

Called by
27

27 places in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.

What it touches

  • hookthird-party callbacksapply_filters()one call below delete_post_meta()
  • serializeserialisationmaybe_serialize()one call below delete_post_meta()
  • cacheobject cachewp_cache_delete_multiple()one call below delete_post_meta()

Further down the call graph this can also reach query, option and transient. Those are the worst case, several calls deep and usually down an error path, not what a normal call pays.

What one call costs · 1 distinct outcome

One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost delete_post_meta() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.

WhenInstructionsCalls it makes
always15–16wp_is_post_revision(), delete_metadata()

Across PHP versions

Compiles the same on PHP 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 and 8.6-dev: 16 instructions, 15–16 executed per call, 1 branch. The work does not change between versions.

An instruction is not a fixed amount of time, so a matching count is not necessarily the same speed; what it rules out is a difference in the work itself.

Uses · 2

Used by · 27

Show all 27

Source code

View on Trac View on GitHub 

function delete_post_meta( $post_id, $meta_key, $meta_value = '' ) {	// Make sure meta is deleted from the post, not from a revision.	$the_post = wp_is_post_revision( $post_id );	if ( $the_post ) {		$post_id = $the_post;	} 	return delete_metadata( 'post', $post_id, $meta_key, $meta_value );}

Changelog

Introduced in 1.5.0. Unchanged from 6.7.7 through 7.1.0.

  1. 6.7.7
  2. 6.8.8
  3. 6.9.7
  4. 7.0.4
  5. 7.1.0

Signature, return type and hooks compared across 5 parsed releases.

About this page

Parsed data
Generated from the wordpress-develop 7.0.4 tag, from src/wp-includes/post.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it.
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