wppaste
WordPress

wp_get_attachment_caption( int $post_id = 0 ): string|false

Since
4.6.0
Source
wp-includes/post.php:7265
Retrieves the caption for an attachment.

Compatibility

WordPress
since 4.6.0
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

$post_idintoptional
Attachment ID. Default is the ID of the global $post.Default: 0

Return value

string|false
Attachment caption on success, false on failure.

Performance profile

How much work a call to wp_get_attachment_caption() 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
9–20

Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 22.

Plugin surface
1 hook

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

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()called directly
  • hookthird-party callbacksapply_filters()called directly

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 · 2 distinct outcomes

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

WhenInstructionsCalls it makes
always9–12get_post()
always20get_post(), apply_filters()

Across PHP versions

Compiles the same on PHP 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 and 8.6-dev: 22 instructions, 9–20 executed per call, 2 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.

Hooks and filters fired · 1

One hook fires while wp_get_attachment_caption() runs, in this order:

  1. apply_filters( wp_get_attachment_caption )filterline 7287 (+22 into the body)

    Filters the attachment caption.

Uses · 2

  • get_post()Retrieves post data given a post ID or post object.
  • apply_filters()Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.

Used by · 2

Source code

function wp_get_attachment_caption( $post_id = 0 ) {	$post_id = (int) $post_id;	$post    = get_post( $post_id ); 	if ( ! $post ) {		return false;	} 	if ( 'attachment' !== $post->post_type ) {		return false;	} 	$caption = $post->post_excerpt; 	/**	 * Filters the attachment caption.	 *	 * @since 4.6.0	 *	 * @param string $caption Caption for the given attachment.	 * @param int    $post_id Attachment ID.	 */	return apply_filters( 'wp_get_attachment_caption', $caption, $post->ID );}

Changelog

Introduced in 4.6.0. 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 7.1.0 tag, from src/wp-includes/post.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it.
Corrections
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