_wp_get_current_user(): WP_User
- Since
- 4.5.0
- Source
wp-includes/user.php:3746
Description
Will set the current user, if the current user is not set. The current user will be set to the logged-in person. If no user is logged-in, then it will set the current user to 0, which is invalid and won't have any permissions.
This function is used by the pluggable functions wp_get_current_user() and get_currentuserinfo(), the latter of which is deprecated but used for backward compatibility.
Compatibility
- WordPress
- since 4.5.0
- PHP
- 7.4–8.6-dev
- 6.7.7
- 6.8.8
- 6.9.7
- 7.0.4
- 7.1.0
Present in every tracked release (6.7.7 to 7.1.0), and compiles on PHP 7.4 through 8.6-dev.
Return value
WP_User- Current WP_User instance.
Performance profile
How much work a call to _wp_get_current_user() does, and what it touches: the algorithmic scaling, the Zend instruction count per call across PHP versions, the hooks it hands control to, and the core code that calls it. Measured from the compiled opcodes, not a stopwatch, so every number is identical on any machine running the same PHP version, and every function in core is ranked by cost.
- Cost class
- Trivial
- Scaling
- Constant
- Instructions
- 6–17
- Plugin surface
- 1 hook
- Called by
- 2
Touches nothing outside its own arguments.
No loop in the body: the same number of instructions runs whatever you pass in.
Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 43.
Third-party callbacks on 'determine_current_user' run inside this call, and their cost is not bounded by anything here.
2 places in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.
What it touches
- hookthird-party callbacks
apply_filters()called directly
Further down the call graph this can also reach query. That is the worst case, several calls deep and usually down an error path, not what a normal call pays.
What one call costs · 3 distinct outcomes
One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost _wp_get_current_user() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.
| When | Instructions | Calls it makes |
|---|---|---|
!empty($current_user) && $current_user instanceof | 6 | none |
| always | 11–15 | wp_set_current_user() |
empty($current_user) | 15–17 | apply_filters(), wp_set_current_user() |
Across PHP versions
Compiles the same on PHP 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 and 8.6-dev: 43 instructions, 6–17 executed per call, 7 branches. The work does not change between versions.
An instruction is not a fixed amount of time, so a matching count is not necessarily the same speed; what it rules out is a difference in the work itself.
Hooks and filters fired · 1
One hook fires while _wp_get_current_user() runs, in this order:
Uses · 2
- wp_set_current_user()Changes the current user by ID or name.
- apply_filters()Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.
Used by · 2
- get_currentuserinfo()Populate global variables with information about the currently logged in user.
- wp_get_current_user()Retrieves the current user object.
Source code
function _wp_get_current_user() { global $current_user; if ( ! empty( $current_user ) ) { if ( $current_user instanceof WP_User ) { return $current_user; } // Upgrade stdClass to WP_User. if ( is_object( $current_user ) && isset( $current_user->ID ) ) { $cur_id = $current_user->ID; $current_user = null; wp_set_current_user( $cur_id ); return $current_user; } // $current_user has a junk value. Force to WP_User with ID 0. $current_user = null; wp_set_current_user( 0 ); return $current_user; } if ( defined( 'XMLRPC_REQUEST' ) && XMLRPC_REQUEST ) { wp_set_current_user( 0 ); return $current_user; } /** * Filters the current user. * * The default filters use this to determine the current user from the * request's cookies, if available. * * Returning a value of false will effectively short-circuit setting * the current user. * * @since 3.9.0 * * @param int|false $user_id User ID if one has been determined, false otherwise. */ $user_id = apply_filters( 'determine_current_user', false ); if ( ! $user_id ) { wp_set_current_user( 0 ); return $current_user; } wp_set_current_user( $user_id ); return $current_user;}Changelog
Introduced in 4.5.0. Unchanged from 6.7.7 through 7.1.0.
Signature, return type and hooks compared across 5 parsed releases.
About this page
- Parsed data
- Generated from the wordpress-develop 6.9.7 tag, from
src/wp-includes/user.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it. - Corrections
- Something wrong on this page? Report it and it gets fixed in the next regeneration.