Is it possible to update post meta from array in one call? - wordpress

Question

Code snippet:
$save_dbarray = array(
'email' => 'email#email.se',
'adress' => 'adress'
);
//Save values from created array into db
foreach($save_dbarray as $meta_key=>$meta_value) {
update_post_meta($post_id, $meta_key, $meta_value);
}
Is there any way to optimize above code? In this simple scenario, it wouldn't matter, but If I have a large array then I guess it might be performance issues when updating?
I would like to do something like:
update_post_meta($post_id, $save_dbarray);
Is this possible?

Answer 1

While the other answers are creative solutions to your problem, they don't seem to address the actual issue or answer your question.
The Answer
No. WordPress's update_post_meta only works on one field at a time. Your best bet is to stick with the method you're using above, with the foreach loop. The other answers provide ways of storing that meta in a single field, which is probably fine for some but (as in my case) some need to query against those values, and having a serialized or JSON-encoded array doesn't cut it.
Unfortunately, WP provides no "bulk meta update" method, and if it did, it would likely be a foreach loop. You can always write a function to help make your code cleaner, at least:
<?php
function update_post_meta_array( $post_id, $meta ) {
if ( ! get_post( $post_id ) || ! is_array( $meta ) || empty( $meta ) ) {
return false;
}
foreach ( $meta as $meta_key => $meta_value ) {
update_post_meta( $post_id, $meta_key, $meta_value );
}
return true;
}

Answer 2

phatskat is correct in that there's no built-in way to do this and a foreach loop is required.
This is the most efficient I've found - wrote about it in a blog post as well:
add_action('init', 'bulk_update_post_meta_data');
function bulk_update_post_meta_data() {
$args = array(
'posts_per_page' => -1,
'post_type' => 'POSTTYPEHERE',
'suppress_filters' => true
);
$posts_array = get_posts( $args );
foreach($posts_array as $post_array) {
update_post_meta($post_array->ID, 'POSTMETAKEY', 'NEWVALUE');
}
}

Answer 3

Why not try with serialize() like this:
According to update_post_meta() documentation you can pass the $meta_value as array, that will be serialized into a string.
$save_dbarray = array(
'email' => 'email#email.se',
'adress' => 'adress'
);
update_post_meta($post_id, 'my_custom_fields', $save_dbarray);

Answer 4

Possible multiple value at a time you can your value genearte escaped_json
$escaped_json = '{"key":"value with \\"escaped quotes\\""}';
update_post_meta( $id, 'double_escaped_json', wp_slash($escaped_json) );