wppaste
WordPress

start_wp()

Since
1.0.1
Source
wp-includes/deprecated.php:63
Sets up the WordPress Loop.

Description

Use The Loop instead.

Compatibility

Deprecated in WordPress 1.5.0. Kept for back-compatibility; avoid it in new code.

WordPress
since 1.0.1
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.

Performance profile

How much work a call to start_wp() 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
17

Executed per call on PHP 8.5. The body compiles to 17.

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 it touches

  • querycontent queryget_post()called directly
  • hookthird-party callbacksdo_action()one call below start_wp()

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 · 1 distinct outcome

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

WhenInstructionsCalls it makes
always17__(), _deprecated_function(), ->next_post(), get_post(), setup_postdata()

Across PHP versions

Compiles the same on PHP 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 and 8.6-dev: 17 instructions, 17 executed per call, 0 branches. 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 · 4

Source code

View on Trac View on GitHub 

function start_wp() {	global $wp_query; 	_deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '1.5.0', __('new WordPress Loop') ); 	// Since the old style loop is being used, advance the query iterator here.	$wp_query->next_post(); 	setup_postdata( get_post() );}

Changelog

Introduced in 1.0.1. 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.

1.5.0
Deprecated.from the docblock
1.0.1
Introduced.from the docblock

About this page

Parsed data
Generated from the wordpress-develop 6.9.7 tag, from src/wp-includes/deprecated.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it.
Corrections
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