wppaste
WordPress

get_comment_date( string $format = '', int|WP_Comment $comment_id = 0 ): string

Since
1.5.0, 4.4.0
Source
wp-includes/comment-template.php:613
Retrieves the comment date of the current comment.

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

$formatstringoptional
PHP date format. Defaults to the 'date_format' option.Default: ''
$comment_idint|WP_Commentoptional
WP_Comment or ID of the comment for which to get the date.
Default current comment.Default: 0

Return value

string
The comment's date.

Performance profile

How much work a call to get_comment_date() 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
25–27

Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 29.

Plugin surface
1 hook

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

Called by
11

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

What it touches

  • optionoption read or writeget_option()called directly
  • hookthird-party callbacksapply_filters()called directly
  • cacheobject cachewp_cache_get()one call below get_comment_date()
  • serializeserialisationmaybe_unserialize()one call below get_comment_date()

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 get_comment_date() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.

WhenInstructionsCalls it makes
!empty($format)25get_comment(), mysql2date(), apply_filters()
empty($format)27get_comment(), get_option(), mysql2date(), apply_filters()

Across PHP versions

PHPCompiledExecutedBranchesNotes
8.6-dev2825–2611 fewer instruction than PHP 8.5
8.52925–271
8.42925–271
8.32925–271
8.22925–271
8.12925–271
7.42925–271

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_date() runs, in this order:

  1. apply_filters( get_comment_date )filterline 629 (+16 into the body)

    Filters the returned comment date.

Uses · 4

  • get_comment()Retrieves comment data given a comment ID or comment object.
  • get_option()Retrieves an option value based on an option name.
  • mysql2date()Converts given MySQL date string into a different format.
  • apply_filters()Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.

Used by · 11

Source code

function get_comment_date( $format = '', $comment_id = 0 ) {	$comment = get_comment( $comment_id ); 	$_format = ! empty( $format ) ? $format : get_option( 'date_format' ); 	$comment_date = mysql2date( $_format, $comment->comment_date ); 	/**	 * Filters the returned comment date.	 *	 * @since 1.5.0	 *	 * @param string|int $comment_date Formatted date string or Unix timestamp.	 * @param string     $format       PHP date format.	 * @param WP_Comment $comment      The comment object.	 */	return apply_filters( 'get_comment_date', $comment_date, $format, $comment );}

Changelog

Introduced in 1.5.0. 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.

4.4.0
Added the ability for $comment_id to also accept a WP_Comment object.from the docblock
1.5.0
Introduced.from the docblock

About this page

Parsed data
Generated from the wordpress-develop 7.0.4 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
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