WordPress 4.8.3 + ACF + get_posts with meta_query

Here in Papion headquarters we love using ACF.
Advanced Custom Fields is one of the best WordPressWordPress (WordPress.org) is a content management system (CMS) based on PHP & MySQL. Features in... More plugins for custom field management.

Recently, with the new WordPressWordPress (WordPress.org) is a content management system (CMS) based on PHP & MySQL. Features in... More 4.8.3, a change was made in the prepare query to the database.

Instead of characters like % now we have placeholders like {1872368126381726387126381276381726318723} (for more information see code).

It does not involve any major issues, except when we use ACF in combination with get_posts and metaquery to search for post based on repeater fields that have meta_key in fieldgrup_%_field format like “fieldgrup_0_field”, “fieldgrup_1_field”, etc.

One of the solutions ACF proposes is (source)

function my_posts_where( $where ) {
  $where = str_replace("meta_key = 'locations_%", "meta_key LIKE 'locations_%", $where);
  
  return $where;
}

add_filter('posts_where', 'my_posts_where');

However, with the update, instead of the “%” character, we find ourselves with a numeric placeholder, so this code should be changed so that the comparison is done with the query without placeholders:

function my_posts_where( $where ) {
  global $wpdb;
  $where = str_replace("meta_key = 'locations_%", "meta_key LIKE 'locations_%", $wpdb->remove_placeholder_escape($where));

  return $where;
}

add_filter('posts_where', 'my_posts_where');