title: how to handle serialized data with WP_User_Query
body: <p><br>
  I'm trying expand a custom user search in Wordpress; namely, I want to search the users by city, state and country, but these data are serialized.
  My example<br>
  meta_key: <code>pie_address_3</code>;<br> 
  meta_value: <code>a:6:{s:7:"address";s:18:"New York Street, 4";s:8:"address2";s:0:"";s:4:"city";s:5:"Venice";s:5:"state";s:7:"Vicenza";s:3:"zip";s:5:"36015";s:7:"country";s:5:"Italy";}</code></p>
  
  <p>Here is what I'm trying to do:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$my_users = new WP_User_Query(
        array( 
          'role' =&gt; $role,
          'search' =&gt; '*' . $search . '*',
          'search_columns' =&gt; array(
              'user_login',
              'user_nicename',
              'user_email',
              'user_url',
              'display_name'
          ),
          'meta_query' =&gt; array(
                'key'     =&gt; 'pie_address_3',
                'value'   =&gt; $search,
                'compare' =&gt; 'LIKE'
            )
        ));
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But, when I type some country or city (which I know is associated with some user), the search result return nothing. How can I handle this? Thanks!</p>
  
  <p><strong>UPDATE</strong><br></p>
  
  <p>I have updated the <code>WP_User_Query</code> like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$args = array(
              'meta_key' =&gt; 'pie_address_3'
          );
          $query = new WP_User_Query($args);
  
          $authors = $query-&gt;get_results();
  
          foreach ($authors as $author){
              $c = get_user_meta($author-&gt;id,'pie_address_3',true);
              if(isset($c)){
                  if(empty(get_user_meta($author-&gt;id,'address',true))){
                     add_user_meta($author-&gt;ID,'address',$c['address']); 
                  }
                  if(empty(get_user_meta($author-&gt;id,'address2',true))){
                     add_user_meta($author-&gt;ID,'address2',$c['address2']); 
                  }
                  if(empty(get_user_meta($author-&gt;id,'city',true))){
                     add_user_meta($author-&gt;ID,'city',$c['city']); 
                  }
                  if(empty(get_user_meta($author-&gt;id,'state',true))){
                     add_user_meta($author-&gt;ID,'state',$c['state']); 
                  }
                  if(empty(get_user_meta($author-&gt;id,'zip',true))){
                     add_user_meta($author-&gt;ID,'zip',$c['zip']); 
                  }
                  if(empty(get_user_meta($author-&gt;id,'country',true))){
                     add_user_meta($author-&gt;ID,'country',$c['country']); 
                  };
                  //delete_user_meta($author-&gt;ID,'pie_address_3',$c);
              }
          }
  
          $my_users = new WP_User_Query(
            array( 
              'role' =&gt; $role,
              'search' =&gt; '*' . $search . '*',
              'search_columns' =&gt; array(
                  'user_login',
                  'user_nicename',
                  'user_email',
                  'user_url',
                  'display_name'
              ),
              'meta_query' =&gt; array(
                  'relation' =&gt; 'OR',
                  array(
                    'key'     =&gt; 'address',
                    'value'   =&gt; $search,
                    'compare' =&gt; 'LIKE'
                  ),
                  array(
                    'key'     =&gt; 'address2',
                    'value'   =&gt; $search,
                    'compare' =&gt; 'LIKE'
                  ),
                  array(
                    'key'     =&gt; 'city',
                    'value'   =&gt; $search,
                    'compare' =&gt; 'LIKE'
                  ),
                  array(
                    'key'     =&gt; 'state',
                    'value'   =&gt; $search,
                    'compare' =&gt; 'LIKE'
                  ),
                  array(
                    'key'     =&gt; 'zip',
                    'value'   =&gt; $search,
                    'compare' =&gt; 'LIKE'
                  ),
                  array(
                    'key'     =&gt; 'country',
                    'value'   =&gt; $search,
                    'compare' =&gt; 'LIKE'
                  )
                )
            )
          );
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But still, it doesn't work. Where am I doing wrong?</p>