wp_delete_comment( int|WP_Comment $comment_id, bool $force_delete = false ): bool

Description

Compatibility

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

Parameters

$comment_idint|WP_Comment

Comment ID or WP_Comment object.

$force_deletebooloptional

Whether to bypass Trash and force deletion. Default false.Default: false

Return value

bool

True on success, false on failure.

Performance profile

How much work a call to wp_delete_comment() 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_col().

Scaling

Scales with input

The body loops, so the work grows with what you pass in.

Instructions

9–114

Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 125.

Plugin surface

3 hooks

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

Called by

8

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

What it touches

• hookthird-party callbacksdo_action()called directly
• sqldatabase query->get_col()called directly
• cacheobject cachewp_cache_delete_multiple()one call below wp_delete_comment()

Further down the call graph this can also reach serialize, query, option 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 · 14 distinct outcomes

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

Hooks and filters fired · 3

3 hooks fire while wp_delete_comment() runs, in this order:

1. 1
   do_action( delete_comment )actionline 1529 (+21 into the body)

   Fires immediately before a comment is deleted from the database.

2. 2
   do_action( deleted_comment )actionline 1557 (+49 into the body)

   Fires immediately after a comment is deleted from the database.

3. 3
   do_action( wp_set_comment_status )actionline 1567 (+59 into the body)

   Fires immediately after transitioning a comment's status from one to another in the database and removing the comment from the object cache, but prior to all status transition hooks.

Uses · 8

• get_comment()Retrieves comment data given a comment ID or comment object.
• wp_get_comment_status()Retrieves the status of a comment by comment ID.
• wp_trash_comment()Moves a comment to the Trash
• do_action()Calls the callback functions that have been added to an action hook.
• clean_comment_cache()Removes a comment from the object cache.
• delete_metadata_by_mid()Deletes metadata by meta ID.
• wp_update_comment_count()Updates the comment count for post(s).
• wp_transition_comment_status()Calls hooks for when a comment status transition occurs.

Used by · 8

• WP_REST_Comments_Controller::delete_item()Deletes a comment.
• upgrade_430_fix_comments()Executes comments changes made in WordPress 4.3.0.
• wp_ajax_delete_comment()Handles deleting a comment via AJAX.
• wp_delete_attachment()Trashes or deletes an attachment.
• wp_delete_post()Trashes or deletes a post or page.
• wp_scheduled_delete()Permanently deletes comments or posts of any type that have held a status of 'trash' for the number of days defined in EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS.
• wp_trash_comment()Moves a comment to the Trash
• wp_xmlrpc_server::wp_deleteComment()Deletes a comment.

Source code

View on Trac ↗View on GitHub ↗

1508function wp_delete_comment( $comment_id, $force_delete = false ) {1509	global $wpdb;1510 1511	$comment = get_comment( $comment_id );1512	if ( ! $comment ) {1513		return false;1514	}1515 1516	if ( ! $force_delete && EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS && ! in_array( wp_get_comment_status( $comment ), array( 'trash', 'spam' ), true ) ) {1517		return wp_trash_comment( $comment_id );1518	}1519 1520	/**1521	 * Fires immediately before a comment is deleted from the database.1522	 *1523	 * @since 1.2.01524	 * @since 4.9.0 Added the `$comment` parameter.1525	 *1526	 * @param string     $comment_id The comment ID as a numeric string.1527	 * @param WP_Comment $comment    The comment to be deleted.1528	 */1529	do_action( 'delete_comment', $comment->comment_ID, $comment );1530 1531	// Move children up a level.1532	$children = $wpdb->get_col( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT comment_ID FROM $wpdb->comments WHERE comment_parent = %d", $comment->comment_ID ) );1533	if ( ! empty( $children ) ) {1534		$wpdb->update( $wpdb->comments, array( 'comment_parent' => $comment->comment_parent ), array( 'comment_parent' => $comment->comment_ID ) );1535		clean_comment_cache( $children );1536	}1537 1538	// Delete metadata.1539	$meta_ids = $wpdb->get_col( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT meta_id FROM $wpdb->commentmeta WHERE comment_id = %d", $comment->comment_ID ) );1540	foreach ( $meta_ids as $mid ) {1541		delete_metadata_by_mid( 'comment', $mid );1542	}1543 1544	if ( ! $wpdb->delete( $wpdb->comments, array( 'comment_ID' => $comment->comment_ID ) ) ) {1545		return false;1546	}1547 1548	/**1549	 * Fires immediately after a comment is deleted from the database.1550	 *1551	 * @since 2.9.01552	 * @since 4.9.0 Added the `$comment` parameter.1553	 *1554	 * @param string     $comment_id The comment ID as a numeric string.1555	 * @param WP_Comment $comment    The deleted comment.1556	 */1557	do_action( 'deleted_comment', $comment->comment_ID, $comment );1558 1559	$post_id = $comment->comment_post_ID;1560	if ( $post_id && '1' === $comment->comment_approved ) {1561		wp_update_comment_count( $post_id );1562	}1563 1564	clean_comment_cache( $comment->comment_ID );1565 1566	/** This action is documented in wp-includes/comment.php */1567	do_action( 'wp_set_comment_status', $comment->comment_ID, 'delete' );1568 1569	wp_transition_comment_status( 'delete', $comment->comment_approved, $comment );1570 1571	return true;1572}

Changelog

Introduced in 2.0.0. 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 7.0.4 tag, from src/wp-includes/comment.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.