strip_shortcodes( string $content ): string
- Since
- 2.5.0
- Source
wp-includes/shortcodes.php:706
Compatibility
- WordPress
- since 2.5.0
- 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
$contentstring- Content to remove shortcode tags.
Return value
string- Content without shortcode tags.
Performance profile
How much work a call to strip_shortcodes() 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
- Scaling
- Constant
- Instructions
- 5–55
- Plugin surface
- 1 hook
- Called by
- 1
Touches nothing outside its own arguments.
No loop in the body: the same number of instructions runs whatever you pass in.
Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 58.
Third-party callbacks on 'strip_shortcodes_tagnames' run inside this call, and their cost is not bounded by anything here.
1 place in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.
What it touches
- hookthird-party callbacks
apply_filters()called directly - regexregular expression over the whole input
preg_match_all()called directly
Further down the call graph this can also reach option, cache, serialize, 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 · 3 distinct outcomes
One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost strip_shortcodes() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.
| When | Instructions | Calls it makes |
|---|---|---|
| always | 5–9 | none |
$content && !empty($shortcode_tags) && is_array($shortcode_tags) && empty($tagnames) | 32 | preg_match_all(), array_keys(), apply_filters(), array_intersect() |
$content && !empty($shortcode_tags) && is_array($shortcode_tags) && !empty($tagnames) | 55 | preg_match_all(), array_keys(), apply_filters(), array_intersect(), do_shortcodes_in_html_tags(), get_shortcode_regex(), preg_replace_callback(), unescape_invalid_shortcodes() |
Across PHP versions
| PHP | Compiled | Executed | Branches | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.6-dev | 58 | 5–55 | 4 | |
| 8.5 | 58 | 5–55 | 4 | |
| 8.4 | 58 | 5–55 | 4 | 3 fewer instructions than PHP 8.3 |
| 8.3 | 61 | 8–58 | 4 | |
| 8.2 | 61 | 8–58 | 4 | |
| 8.1 | 61 | 8–58 | 4 | |
| 7.4 | 61 | 8–58 | 4 |
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 strip_shortcodes() runs, in this order:
- apply_filters( strip_shortcodes_tagnames )filterline 730 (+24 into the body)
Filters the list of shortcode tags to remove from the content.
Uses · 5
- str_contains()Polyfill for `str_contains()` function added in PHP 8.0.
- apply_filters()Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.
- do_shortcodes_in_html_tags()Searches only inside HTML elements for shortcodes and process them.
- get_shortcode_regex()Retrieves the shortcode regular expression for searching.
- unescape_invalid_shortcodes()Removes placeholders added by do_shortcodes_in_html_tags().
Used by · 1
- wp_trim_excerpt()Generates an excerpt from the content, if needed.
Source code
function strip_shortcodes( $content ) { global $shortcode_tags; if ( ! str_contains( $content, '[' ) ) { return $content; } if ( empty( $shortcode_tags ) || ! is_array( $shortcode_tags ) ) { return $content; } // Find all registered tag names in $content. preg_match_all( '@\[([^<>&/\[\]\x00-\x20=]++)@', $content, $matches ); $tags_to_remove = array_keys( $shortcode_tags ); /** * Filters the list of shortcode tags to remove from the content. * * @since 4.7.0 * * @param array $tags_to_remove Array of shortcode tags to remove. * @param string $content Content shortcodes are being removed from. */ $tags_to_remove = apply_filters( 'strip_shortcodes_tagnames', $tags_to_remove, $content ); $tagnames = array_intersect( $tags_to_remove, $matches[1] ); if ( empty( $tagnames ) ) { return $content; } $content = do_shortcodes_in_html_tags( $content, true, $tagnames ); $pattern = get_shortcode_regex( $tagnames ); $content = preg_replace_callback( "/$pattern/", 'strip_shortcode_tag', $content ); // Always restore square braces so we don't break things like <!--[if IE ]>. $content = unescape_invalid_shortcodes( $content ); return $content;}Changelog
Introduced in 2.5.0. Unchanged from 6.7.7 through 7.1.0.
Signature, return type and hooks compared across 5 parsed releases.
About this page
- Parsed data
- Generated from the wordpress-develop 7.1.0 tag, from
src/wp-includes/shortcodes.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it. - Corrections
- Something wrong on this page? Report it and it gets fixed in the next regeneration.