get_comment_author( int|WP_Comment $comment_id = 0 ): string
- Since
- 1.5.0, 4.4.0
- Source
wp-includes/comment-template.php:24
Description
If the comment has an empty comment_author field, then 'Anonymous' person is assumed.
Compatibility
- WordPress
- since 4.4.0
- 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
$comment_idint|WP_Commentoptional- WP_Comment or the ID of the comment for which to retrieve the author.
Default current comment.Default:0
Return value
string- The comment author
Performance profile
How much work a call to get_comment_author() does, and what it touches: the algorithmic scaling, the Zend instruction count per call across PHP versions, the hooks it hands control to, and the core code that calls it. Measured from the compiled opcodes, not a stopwatch, so every number is identical on any machine running the same PHP version, and every function in core is ranked by cost.
- Cost class
- Heavy
- Scaling
- Constant
- Instructions
- 20–37
- Plugin surface
- 1 hook
- Called by
- 13
Reaches the database via get_user_by().
No loop in the body: the same number of instructions runs whatever you pass in.
Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 45.
Third-party callbacks on 'get_comment_author' run inside this call, and their cost is not bounded by anything here.
13 places in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.
What it touches
- hookthird-party callbacks
apply_filters()called directly - querycontent query
get_user_by()one call below get_comment_author()
Further down the call graph this can also reach option, cache, serialize and transient. Those are the worst case, several calls deep and usually down an error path, not what a normal call pays.
What one call costs · 4 distinct outcomes
One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost get_comment_author() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.
| When | Instructions | Calls it makes |
|---|---|---|
| always | 20–28 | get_comment(), apply_filters() |
empty($comment) | 29–31 | get_comment(), __(), apply_filters() |
| always | 32–34 | get_comment(), get_userdata(), apply_filters() |
| always | 35–37 | get_comment(), get_userdata(), __(), apply_filters() |
Across PHP versions
| PHP | Compiled | Executed | Branches | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.6-dev | 44 | 20–36 | 5 | 1 fewer instruction than PHP 8.5 |
| 8.5 | 45 | 20–37 | 5 | |
| 8.4 | 45 | 20–37 | 5 | |
| 8.3 | 45 | 20–37 | 5 | |
| 8.2 | 45 | 20–37 | 5 | |
| 8.1 | 45 | 20–37 | 5 | 2 fewer instructions than PHP 7.4 |
| 7.4 | 47 | 20–39 | 5 |
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 get_comment_author() runs, in this order:
- apply_filters( get_comment_author )filterline 56 (+32 into the body)
Filters the returned comment author name.
Uses · 4
- get_comment()Retrieves comment data given a comment ID or comment object.
- get_userdata()Retrieves user info by user ID.
- __()Retrieves the translation of $text.
- apply_filters()Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.
Used by · 13
- TwentyNineteen_Walker_Comment::html5_comment()Outputs a comment in the HTML5 format.
- TwentyTwenty_Walker_Comment::html5_comment()Outputs a comment in the HTML5 format.
- WP_Comments_List_Table::column_comment()
- Walker_Comment::comment()Outputs a single comment.
- Walker_Comment::html5_comment()Outputs a comment in the HTML5 format.
- comment_author()Displays the author of the current comment.
- comment_form_title()Displays text based on comment reply status.
- get_comment_author_link()Retrieves the HTML link to the URL of the author of the current comment.
- get_comment_author_rss()Retrieves the current comment author for use in the feeds.
- get_comment_reply_link()Retrieves HTML content for reply to comment link.
- get_comment_text()Retrieves the text of the current comment.
- render_block_core_comment_author_name()Renders the `core/comment-author-name` block on the server.
Show all 13
- render_block_core_latest_comments()Renders the `core/latest-comments` block on server.
Source code
function get_comment_author( $comment_id = 0 ) { $comment = get_comment( $comment_id ); if ( ! empty( $comment->comment_ID ) ) { $comment_id = $comment->comment_ID; } elseif ( is_scalar( $comment_id ) ) { $comment_id = (string) $comment_id; } else { $comment_id = '0'; } if ( empty( $comment->comment_author ) ) { $user = ! empty( $comment->user_id ) ? get_userdata( $comment->user_id ) : false; if ( $user ) { $comment_author = $user->display_name; } else { $comment_author = __( 'Anonymous' ); } } else { $comment_author = $comment->comment_author; } /** * Filters the returned comment author name. * * @since 1.5.0 * @since 4.1.0 The `$comment_id` and `$comment` parameters were added. * * @param string $comment_author The comment author's username. * @param string $comment_id The comment ID as a numeric string. * @param WP_Comment $comment The comment object. */ return apply_filters( 'get_comment_author', $comment_author, $comment_id, $comment );}Changelog
Introduced in 1.5.0. Unchanged from 6.7.7 through 7.1.0.
Signature, return type and hooks compared across 5 parsed releases.
$comment_id to also accept a WP_Comment object.from the docblockAbout this page
- Parsed data
- Generated from the wordpress-develop 6.8.8 tag, from
src/wp-includes/comment-template.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.