get_category_by_path( string $category_path, bool $full_match = true, string $output = OBJECT ): WP_Term|array|WP_Error|null
- Since
- 2.1.0
- Source
wp-includes/category.php:125
Description
Breaks the $category_path parameter up to get the category slug.
Tries to find the child path and will return it. If it doesn't find a match, then it will return the first category matching slug, if $full_match, is set to false. If it does not, then it will return null.
It is also possible that it will return a WP_Error object on failure. Check for it when using this function.
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
$category_pathstring- URL containing category slugs.
$full_matchbooloptional- Whether full path should be matched.Default:
true $outputstringoptional- The required return type. One of OBJECT, ARRAY_A, or ARRAY_N, which correspond to a WP_Term object, an associative array, or a numeric array, respectively. Default OBJECT.Default:
OBJECT
Return value
WP_Term|array|WP_Error|null- Type is based on $output value.
Performance profile
How much work a call to get_category_by_path() does, and what it touches: the algorithmic scaling, the Zend instruction count per call across PHP versions, the hooks it hands control to, and the core code that calls it. Measured from the compiled opcodes, not a stopwatch, so every number is identical on any machine running the same PHP version, and every function in core is ranked by cost.
- Cost class
- Heavy
- Scaling
- Scales with input
- Instructions
- 44–72
- Plugin surface
- None
- Called by
- 1
Reaches the database via get_terms().
The body loops, so the work grows with what you pass in.
Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 119.
Nothing here hands control to plugin code.
1 place in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.
What it touches
- querycontent query
get_terms()called directly - hookthird-party callbacks
apply_filters()one call below get_category_by_path()
Further down the call graph this can also reach option, cache, serialize and transient. Those are the worst case, several calls deep and usually down an error path, not what a normal call pays.
What one call costs · 4 distinct outcomes
One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost get_category_by_path() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.
| When | Instructions | Calls it makes |
|---|---|---|
| always | 44–49 | urldecode(), rawurlencode(), basename(), sanitize_title(), explode(), category() |
!empty($categories) | 61–63 | urldecode(), rawurlencode(), basename(), sanitize_title(), explode(), category(), reset(), get_term(), _make_cat_compat() |
!empty($categories) && !$categories && $path === false | 67–72 | urldecode(), rawurlencode(), basename(), sanitize_title(), explode(), category(), get_term(), _make_cat_compat() |
!empty($categories) && !$categories && is_wp_error() | 69–70 | urldecode(), rawurlencode(), basename(), sanitize_title(), explode(), category(), get_term(), is_wp_error() |
Across PHP versions
| PHP | Compiled | Executed | Branches | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.6-dev | 119 | 44–72 | 11 | |
| 8.5 | 119 | 44–72 | 11 | |
| 8.4 | 119 | 44–72 | 11 | 9 fewer instructions than PHP 8.3 |
| 8.3 | 128 | 53–81 | 11 | |
| 8.2 | 128 | 53–81 | 11 | |
| 8.1 | 128 | 53–81 | 11 | 1 fewer instruction than PHP 7.4 |
| 7.4 | 129 | 53–81 | 11 |
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 · 5
- sanitize_title()Sanitizes a string into a slug, which can be used in URLs or HTML attributes.
- get_terms()Retrieves the terms in a given taxonomy or list of taxonomies.
- get_term()Gets all term data from database by term ID.
- is_wp_error()Checks whether the given variable is a WordPress Error.
- _make_cat_compat()Updates category structure to old pre-2.3 from new taxonomy structure.
Used by · 1
- redirect_canonical()Redirects incoming links to the proper URL based on the site url.
Source code
function get_category_by_path( $category_path, $full_match = true, $output = OBJECT ) { $category_path = rawurlencode( urldecode( $category_path ) ); $category_path = str_replace( '%2F', '/', $category_path ); $category_path = str_replace( '%20', ' ', $category_path ); $category_paths = '/' . trim( $category_path, '/' ); $leaf_path = sanitize_title( basename( $category_paths ) ); $category_paths = explode( '/', $category_paths ); $full_path = ''; foreach ( (array) $category_paths as $pathdir ) { $full_path .= ( '' !== $pathdir ? '/' : '' ) . sanitize_title( $pathdir ); } $categories = get_terms( array( 'taxonomy' => 'category', 'get' => 'all', 'slug' => $leaf_path, ) ); if ( empty( $categories ) ) { return; } foreach ( $categories as $category ) { $path = '/' . $leaf_path; $curcategory = $category; while ( ( 0 !== $curcategory->parent ) && ( $curcategory->parent !== $curcategory->term_id ) ) { $curcategory = get_term( $curcategory->parent, 'category' ); if ( is_wp_error( $curcategory ) ) { return $curcategory; } $path = '/' . $curcategory->slug . $path; } if ( $path === $full_path ) { $category = get_term( $category->term_id, 'category', $output ); _make_cat_compat( $category ); return $category; } } // If full matching is not required, return the first cat that matches the leaf. if ( ! $full_match ) { $category = get_term( reset( $categories )->term_id, 'category', $output ); _make_cat_compat( $category ); return $category; }}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 6.8.8 tag, from
src/wp-includes/category.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.