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WordPress

cat_is_ancestor_of( int|object $cat1, int|object $cat2 ): bool

Since
2.1.0
Source
wp-includes/category.php:248
Checks if a category is an ancestor of another category.

Description

You can use either an ID or the category object for both parameters.
If you use an integer, the category will be retrieved.

Compatibility

WordPress
since 2.1.0
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.

Parameters

$cat1int|object
ID or object to check if this is the parent category.
$cat2int|object
The child category.

Return value

bool
Whether $cat2 is child of $cat1.

Performance profile

How much work a call to cat_is_ancestor_of() 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
Heavy

Reaches the database via get_term().

Scaling
Constant

No loop in the body: the same number of instructions runs whatever you pass in.

Instructions
8

Executed per call on PHP 8.5. The body compiles to 8.

Plugin surface
None

Nothing here hands control to plugin code.

Called by
0

Nothing in core calls this; the cost is only what you spend yourself.

What it touches

  • querycontent queryget_term()one call below cat_is_ancestor_of()

Further down the call graph this can also reach hook, option, cache, serialize and transient. Those are the worst case, several calls deep and usually down an error path, not what a normal call pays.

What one call costs · 1 distinct outcome

One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost cat_is_ancestor_of() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.

WhenInstructionsCalls it makes
always8term_is_ancestor_of()

Across PHP versions

Compiles the same on PHP 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 and 8.6-dev: 8 instructions, 8 executed per call, 0 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.

Uses · 1

Source code

View on Trac View on GitHub 

function cat_is_ancestor_of( $cat1, $cat2 ) {	return term_is_ancestor_of( $cat1, $cat2, 'category' );}

Changelog

Introduced in 2.1.0. Unchanged from 6.7.7 through 7.1.0.

  1. 6.7.7
  2. 6.8.8
  3. 6.9.7
  4. 7.0.4
  5. 7.1.0

Signature, return type and hooks compared across 5 parsed releases.

About this page

Parsed data
Generated from the wordpress-develop 7.0.4 tag, from src/wp-includes/category.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it.
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