format_for_editor( string $text, string $default_editor = null ): string
- Since
- 4.3.0
- Source
wp-includes/formatting.php:4394
Description
Generally the browsers treat everything inside a textarea as text, but it is still a good idea to HTML entity encode <, > and & in the content.
The filter 'format_for_editor' is applied here. If $text is empty the filter will be applied to an empty string.
Compatibility
- WordPress
- since 4.3.0
- 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
$textstring- The text to be formatted.
$default_editorstringoptional- The default editor for the current user.
It is usually either 'html' or 'tinymce'.Default:null
Return value
string- The formatted text after filter is applied.
Performance profile
How much work a call to format_for_editor() 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
- Moderate
- Scaling
- Constant
- Instructions
- 9–18
- Plugin surface
- 1 hook
- Called by
- 0
Reads stored settings via get_option(), cached per request but not free on a cold cache.
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 18.
Third-party callbacks on 'format_for_editor' run inside this call, and their cost is not bounded by anything here.
Nothing in core calls this; the cost is only what you spend yourself.
What it touches
- optionoption read or write
get_option()called directly - hookthird-party callbacks
apply_filters()called directly - cacheobject cache
wp_cache_get()one call below format_for_editor() - serializeserialisation
maybe_unserialize()one call below format_for_editor()
Further down the call graph this can also reach query 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 · 2 distinct outcomes
One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost format_for_editor() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.
| When | Instructions | Calls it makes |
|---|---|---|
| always | 9 | apply_filters() |
| always | 18 | get_option(), htmlspecialchars(), 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: 18 instructions, 9–18 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 format_for_editor() runs, in this order:
- apply_filters( format_for_editor )filterline 4408 (+14 into the body)
Filters the text after it is formatted for the editor.
Uses · 2
- get_option()Retrieves an option value based on an option name.
- apply_filters()Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.
Source code
function format_for_editor( $text, $default_editor = null ) { if ( $text ) { $text = htmlspecialchars( $text, ENT_NOQUOTES, get_option( 'blog_charset' ) ); } /** * Filters the text after it is formatted for the editor. * * @since 4.3.0 * * @param string $text The formatted text. * @param string $default_editor The default editor for the current user. * It is usually either 'html' or 'tinymce'. */ return apply_filters( 'format_for_editor', $text, $default_editor );}Changelog
Introduced in 4.3.0. 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 7.0.4 tag, from
src/wp-includes/formatting.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.