WordPress Custom Fields

Last updated: 2020-05-04

• WP Codex Reference

WordPress has the ability to allow post authors to assign custom fields to a post. This arbitrary extra information is known as meta-data.

Meta-data is handled with key/value pairs. The key is the name of the meta-data element. The value is the information that will appear in the meta-data list on each individual post that the information is associated with.

Echo the meta-data information:

the_meta();

Returns something like:

<ul class="post-meta">
  <li>
    <span class="post-meta-key">Currently Reading:</span> Calvin and Hobbes
  </li>
  <li><span class="post-meta-key">Today's Mood:</span> Jolly and Happy</li>
</ul>

Getting Custom Fields

Use the get_post_meta() function to return/echo the value of individual custom field values.

$key = 'Currently Reading';
echo get_post_meta($post->ID, $key, true);