email_exists( string $email ): int|false
- Since
- 2.1.0
- Source
wp-includes/user.php:2094
Description
For more information on this and similar theme functions, check out the https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/basics/conditional-tags/ Conditional Tags article in the Theme Developer Handbook.
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
$emailstring- The email to check for existence.
Return value
int|false- The user ID on success, false on failure.
Performance profile
How much work a call to email_exists() 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
- Scaling
- Constant
- Instructions
- 14–15
- Plugin surface
- 1 hook
- Called by
- 6
Reaches the database via get_user_by().
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 16.
Third-party callbacks on 'email_exists' run inside this call, and their cost is not bounded by anything here.
6 places in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.
What it touches
- querycontent query
get_user_by()called directly - hookthird-party callbacks
apply_filters()called directly
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 email_exists() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.
| When | Instructions | Calls it makes |
|---|---|---|
| always | 14–15 | get_user_by(), apply_filters() |
Across PHP versions
Compiles the same on PHP 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 and 8.6-dev: 16 instructions, 14–15 executed per call, 1 branch. 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 email_exists() runs, in this order:
- apply_filters( email_exists )filterline 2111 (+17 into the body)
Filters whether the given email exists.
Uses · 2
- get_user_by()Retrieves user info by a given field.
- apply_filters()Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.
Used by · 6
- WP_REST_Users_Controller::update_item()Updates a single user.
- edit_user()Edit user settings based on contents of $_POST
- register_new_user()Handles registering a new user.
- send_confirmation_on_profile_email()Sends a confirmation request email when a change of user email address is attempted.
- wp_insert_user()Inserts a user into the database.
- wpmu_validate_user_signup()Sanitizes and validates data required for a user sign-up.
Source code
function email_exists( $email ) { $user = get_user_by( 'email', $email ); if ( $user ) { $user_id = $user->ID; } else { $user_id = false; } /** * Filters whether the given email exists. * * @since 5.6.0 * * @param int|false $user_id The user ID associated with the email, * or false if the email does not exist. * @param string $email The email to check for existence. */ return apply_filters( 'email_exists', $user_id, $email );}Changelog
Introduced in 2.1.0. 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.