get_pages( array|string $args = array() ): WP_Post[]|false

Compatibility

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

Parameters

$argsarray|stringoptional

Array or string of arguments to retrieve pages.Default: array()

• $child_ofintdefault: 0, or no restriction

  Page ID to return child and grandchild pages of. Note: The value of $hierarchical has no bearing on whether $child_of returns hierarchical results.

• $sort_orderstringdefault: 'ASC'

  How to sort retrieved pages. Accepts 'ASC', 'DESC'.

• $sort_columnstringdefault: 'post_title'

  What columns to sort pages by, comma-separated. Accepts 'post_author', 'post_date', 'post_title', 'post_name', 'post_modified', 'menu_order', 'post_modified_gmt', 'post_parent', 'ID', 'rand', 'commentcount'. 'post' can be omitted for any values that start with it.

• $hierarchicalbooldefault: true

  Whether to return pages hierarchically. If false in conjunction with $child_of also being false, both arguments will be disregarded.

• $excludeint[]default: empty array

  Array of page IDs to exclude.

• $includeint[]default: empty array

  Array of page IDs to include. Cannot be used with $child_of, $parent, $exclude, $meta_key, $meta_value, or $hierarchical.

• $meta_keystringdefault: empty

  Only include pages with this meta key.

• $meta_valuestringdefault: empty

  Only include pages with this meta value. Requires $meta_key.

• $authorsstringdefault: empty

  A comma-separated list of author IDs.

• $parentintdefault: -1, or no restriction

  Page ID to return direct children of.

• $exclude_treestring|int[]default: empty array

  Comma-separated string or array of page IDs to exclude.

• $numberintdefault: 0, or all pages

  The number of pages to return.

• $offsetintdefault: 0

  The number of pages to skip before returning. Requires $number.

• $post_typestringdefault: 'page'

  The post type to query.

• $post_statusstring|arraydefault: 'publish'

  A comma-separated list or array of post statuses to include.

Return value

WP_Post[]|false

Array of pages (or hierarchical post type items). Boolean false if the specified post type is not hierarchical or the specified status is not supported by the post type.

Performance profile

How much work a call to get_pages() 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

Reaches the database via get_pages().

Scaling

Constant

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

Instructions

8–11

Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 232.

Plugin surface

2 hooks

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

Called by

7

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

What it touches

• querycontent queryget_pages()this function does it
• hookthird-party callbacksapply_filters()called directly

What one call costs · 1 distinct outcome

One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost get_pages() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.

Hooks and filters fired · 2

2 hooks fire while get_pages() runs, in this order:

1. 1
   apply_filters( get_pages_query_args )filterline 6468 (+141 into the body)

   Filters query arguments passed to WP_Query in get_pages.

2. 2
   apply_filters( get_pages )filterline 6502 (+175 into the body)

   Filters the retrieved list of pages.

Uses · 9

• wp_parse_args()Merges user defined arguments into defaults array.
• get_post_types()Gets a list of all registered post type objects.
• get_post_stati()Gets a list of post statuses.
• wp_parse_id_list()Cleans up an array, comma- or space-separated list of IDs.
• wp_parse_list()Converts a comma- or space-separated list of scalar values to an array.
• get_user_by()Retrieves user info by a given field.
• apply_filters()Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.
• get_page_children()Identifies descendants of a given page ID in a list of page objects.
• WP_Query::__construct()Constructor.

Used by · 7

• WP_Customize_Manager::has_published_pages()Returns whether there are published pages.
• WP_Navigation_Block_Renderer::has_submenus()Returns whether or not a navigation has a submenu.
• WP_Posts_List_Table::_display_rows_hierarchical()
• get_body_class()Retrieves an array of the class names for the body element.
• render_block_core_page_list()Renders the `core/page-list` block on server.
• wp_dropdown_pages()Retrieves or displays a list of pages as a dropdown (select list).
• wp_list_pages()Retrieves or displays a list of pages (or hierarchical post type items) in list (li) format.

Source code

View on Trac ↗View on GitHub ↗

6327function get_pages( $args = array() ) {6328	$defaults = array(6329		'child_of'     => 0,6330		'sort_order'   => 'ASC',6331		'sort_column'  => 'post_title',6332		'hierarchical' => 1,6333		'exclude'      => array(),6334		'include'      => array(),6335		'meta_key'     => '',6336		'meta_value'   => '',6337		'authors'      => '',6338		'parent'       => -1,6339		'exclude_tree' => array(),6340		'number'       => '',6341		'offset'       => 0,6342		'post_type'    => 'page',6343		'post_status'  => 'publish',6344	);6345 6346	$parsed_args = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults );6347 6348	$number       = (int) $parsed_args['number'];6349	$offset       = (int) $parsed_args['offset'];6350	$child_of     = (int) $parsed_args['child_of'];6351	$hierarchical = $parsed_args['hierarchical'];6352	$exclude      = $parsed_args['exclude'];6353	$meta_key     = $parsed_args['meta_key'];6354	$meta_value   = $parsed_args['meta_value'];6355	$parent       = $parsed_args['parent'];6356	$post_status  = $parsed_args['post_status'];6357 6358	// Make sure the post type is hierarchical.6359	$hierarchical_post_types = get_post_types( array( 'hierarchical' => true ) );6360	if ( ! in_array( $parsed_args['post_type'], $hierarchical_post_types, true ) ) {6361		return false;6362	}6363 6364	if ( $parent > 0 && ! $child_of ) {6365		$hierarchical = false;6366	}6367 6368	// Make sure we have a valid post status.6369	if ( ! is_array( $post_status ) ) {6370		$post_status = explode( ',', $post_status );6371	}6372	if ( array_diff( $post_status, get_post_stati() ) ) {6373		return false;6374	}6375 6376	$query_args = array(6377		'orderby'                => 'post_title',6378		'order'                  => 'ASC',6379		'post__not_in'           => wp_parse_id_list( $exclude ),6380		'meta_key'               => $meta_key,6381		'meta_value'             => $meta_value,6382		'posts_per_page'         => -1,6383		'offset'                 => $offset,6384		'post_type'              => $parsed_args['post_type'],6385		'post_status'            => $post_status,6386		'update_post_term_cache' => false,6387		'update_post_meta_cache' => false,6388		'ignore_sticky_posts'    => true,6389		'no_found_rows'          => true,6390	);6391 6392	if ( ! empty( $parsed_args['include'] ) ) {6393		$child_of = 0; // Ignore child_of, parent, exclude, meta_key, and meta_value params if using include.6394		$parent   = -1;6395		unset( $query_args['post__not_in'], $query_args['meta_key'], $query_args['meta_value'] );6396		$hierarchical           = false;6397		$query_args['post__in'] = wp_parse_id_list( $parsed_args['include'] );6398	}6399 6400	if ( ! empty( $parsed_args['authors'] ) ) {6401		$post_authors = wp_parse_list( $parsed_args['authors'] );6402 6403		if ( ! empty( $post_authors ) ) {6404			$query_args['author__in'] = array();6405			foreach ( $post_authors as $post_author ) {6406				// Do we have an author id or an author login?

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.

About this page

Parsed data

Generated from the wordpress-develop 6.8.8 tag, from src/wp-includes/post.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it.

Corrections

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