Wordpress: search users using 'first_name' and 'last_name'? - wordpress

Question

UPDATE: I mean to search user in the Admin User Dashboard at /wp-admin/users.php
Is there a way to search users using 'first_name' and 'last_name'?
I found this plugin but not working at all: https://wordpress.org/plugins/full-name-search-in-wp-admin/
I also found this function, but neither is working in my site. Do I need to call the function with a hook/action?:
function search_users($search_term){
global $wpdb;
$the_users = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT DISTINCT $wpdb->users.* FROM $wpdb->users INNER JOIN $wpdb->usermeta um1 ON um1.user_id = $wpdb->users.ID JOIN $wpdb->usermeta um2 ON um2.user_id = $wpdb->users.ID WHERE (um1.meta_key = 'uRPhICRS_capabilities' AND um1.meta_value LIKE '%agent%') AND ((um2.meta_key = 'first_name' OR um2.meta_key = 'last_name') AND um2.meta_value LIKE '%".$search_term."%');");
if(!empty($the_users)){
return $the_users;
}
else{
return false;
}
}

Answer 1

Two Ways as follow:
1) If You want to check from the string match in either firstname or lastname, following will be work:
$users_query = new WP_User_Query(
array(
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'OR',
array(
'key' => 'first_name',
'value' => $str,
'compare' => 'LIKE'
),
array(
'key' => 'last_name',
'value' => $str,
'compare' => 'LIKE'
)
)
)
);
$users = $users_query->get_results();
2) If you want to check the user from username, user_nicename, user_email, firstname, or lastname use following code:
//search from the user table
$users_query_table = new WP_User_Query(
array(
'search' => "*{$str}*",
'search_columns' => array(
'user_login',
'user_nicename',
'user_email',
),
) );
$users_via_table = $users_query_table->get_results();
//search from the usermeta
$users_query_meta = new WP_User_Query(
array(
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'OR',
array(
'key' => 'first_name',
'value' => $str,
'compare' => 'LIKE'
),
array(
'key' => 'last_name',
'value' => $str,
'compare' => 'LIKE'
)
)
)
);
$users_via_meta = $users_query_meta->get_results();
// Merge both result..
$combined_users = array_merge( $users_via_table, $users_via_meta );
// Get unique user
$users = array_unique( $combined_users, SORT_REGULAR );

Answer 2

You can use WP_User_Query.
Example:
// The search term
$search_term = 'Ross';
// WP_User_Query arguments
$args = array (
'role' => 'reporter',
'order' => 'ASC',
'orderby' => 'display_name',
'search' => '*'.esc_attr( $search_term ).'*',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'OR',
array(
'key' => 'first_name',
'value' => $search_term,
'compare' => 'LIKE'
),
array(
'key' => 'last_name',
'value' => $search_term,
'compare' => 'LIKE'
),
array(
'key' => 'description',
'value' => $search_term ,
'compare' => 'LIKE'
)
)
);
// Create the WP_User_Query object
$wp_user_query = new WP_User_Query($args);
https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user_query/