format_to_edit( string $content, bool $rich_text = false ): string

Description

Compatibility

Present in every tracked release (6.7.7 to 7.1.0), and compiles on PHP 7.4 through 8.6-dev.

Parameters

$contentstring

The text about to be edited.

$rich_textbooloptional

Whether $content should be considered rich text, in which case it would not be passed through esc_textarea().
Default false.Default: false

Return value

string

The text after the filter (and possibly htmlspecialchars()) has been run.

Performance profile

How much work a call to format_to_edit() 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

Reads stored settings via get_option(), cached per request but not free on a cold cache.

Scaling

Constant

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

Instructions

9–13

Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 13.

Plugin surface

1 hook

Third-party callbacks on 'format_to_edit' run inside this call, and their cost is not bounded by anything here.

Called by

3

3 places in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.

What it touches

• hookthird-party callbacksapply_filters()called directly
• optionoption read or writeget_option()one call below format_to_edit()

Further down the call graph this can also reach cache, serialize, 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_to_edit() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.

Hooks and filters fired · 1

One hook fires while format_to_edit() runs, in this order:

1. 1
   apply_filters( format_to_edit )filterline 2746 (+8 into the body)

   Filters the text to be formatted for editing.

Uses · 2

• apply_filters()Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.
• esc_textarea()Escaping for textarea values.

Used by · 3

• edit_form_image_editor()Displays the image and editor in the post editor
• get_comment_to_edit()Returns a WP_Comment object based on comment ID.
• sanitize_post_field()Sanitizes a post field based on context.

Source code

View on Trac ↗View on GitHub ↗

2738function format_to_edit( $content, $rich_text = false ) {2739	/**2740	 * Filters the text to be formatted for editing.2741	 *2742	 * @since 1.2.02743	 *2744	 * @param string $content The text, prior to formatting for editing.2745	 */2746	$content = apply_filters( 'format_to_edit', $content );2747	if ( ! $rich_text ) {2748		$content = esc_textarea( $content );2749	}2750	return $content;2751}

Changelog

Introduced in 0.71. 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 6.7.7 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

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