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sanitize_sql_orderby( string $orderby ): string|false

Since
2.5.1
Source
wp-includes/formatting.php:2415
Ensures a string is a valid SQL 'order by' clause.

Description

Accepts one or more columns, with or without a sort order (ASC / DESC).
e.g. 'column_1', 'column_1, column_2', 'column_1 ASC, column_2 DESC' etc.

Also accepts 'RAND()'.

Compatibility

WordPress
since 2.5.1
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

$orderbystring
Order by clause to be validated.

Return value

string|false
Returns $orderby if valid, false otherwise.

Performance profile

How much work a call to sanitize_sql_orderby() 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
Trivial

Touches nothing outside its own arguments.

Scaling
Constant

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

Instructions
4–6

Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 7.

Plugin surface
None

Nothing here hands control to plugin code.

Called by
0

Nothing in core calls this; the cost is only what you spend yourself.

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

WhenInstructionsCalls it makes
always4–6none

Across PHP versions

PHPCompiledExecutedBranchesNotes
8.6-dev74–62
8.574–62
8.474–626 fewer instructions than PHP 8.3
8.3137–122
8.2137–122
8.1137–122
7.4137–122

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.

Source code

View on Trac View on GitHub 

function sanitize_sql_orderby( $orderby ) {	if ( preg_match( '/^\s*(([a-z0-9_]+|`[a-z0-9_]+`)(\s+(ASC|DESC))?\s*(,\s*(?=[a-z0-9_`])|$))+$/i', $orderby ) || preg_match( '/^\s*RAND\(\s*\)\s*$/i', $orderby ) ) {		return $orderby;	}	return false;}

Changelog

Introduced in 2.5.1. 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

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Generated from the wordpress-develop 7.0.4 tag, from src/wp-includes/formatting.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it.
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