wppaste
WordPress

get_post_timestamp( int|WP_Post $post = null, string $field = 'date' ): int|false

Since
5.3.0
Source
wp-includes/general-template.php:2984
Retrieves post published or modified time as a Unix timestamp.

Description

Note that this function returns a true Unix timestamp, not summed with timezone offset like older WP functions.

Compatibility

WordPress
since 5.3.0
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

$postint|WP_Postoptional
Post ID or post object. Default is global $post object.Default: null
$fieldstringoptional
Published or modified time to use from database. Accepts 'date' or 'modified'.
Default 'date'.Default: 'date'

Return value

int|false
Unix timestamp on success, false on failure.

Performance profile

How much work a call to get_post_timestamp() 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_post().

Scaling
Constant

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

Instructions
10–12

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

Plugin surface
None

Nothing here hands control to plugin code.

Called by
2

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

What it touches

  • querycontent queryget_post()one call below get_post_timestamp()

Further down the call graph this can also reach option, hook, 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 · 2 distinct outcomes

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

WhenInstructionsCalls it makes
$datetime === false10get_post_datetime()
$datetime !== false12get_post_datetime(), ->getTimestamp()

Across PHP versions

Compiles the same on PHP 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 and 8.6-dev: 13 instructions, 10–12 executed per call, 1 branch. The work does not change between versions.

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 · 1

  • get_post_datetime()Retrieves post published or modified time as a `DateTimeImmutable` object instance.

Used by · 2

Source code

function get_post_timestamp( $post = null, $field = 'date' ) {	$datetime = get_post_datetime( $post, $field ); 	if ( false === $datetime ) {		return false;	} 	return $datetime->getTimestamp();}

Changelog

Introduced in 5.3.0. One change between 6.7.7 and 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.

7.0.4
Parameter $post retyped from int|WP_Post to int|WP_Post|null.verified against source
5.3.0
Introduced.from the docblock

About this page

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