wp_list_cats( string|array $args = '' ): null|string|false
- Since
- 1.2.0
- Source
wp-includes/deprecated.php:655
Compatibility
Deprecated in WordPress 2.1.0. Use wp_list_categories()
- WordPress
- since 1.2.0
- 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
$argsstring|arrayoptional- Default:
''
Return value
null|string|false
Performance profile
How much work a call to wp_list_cats() 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
- Moderate
- Scaling
- Constant
- Instructions
- 28–51
- Plugin surface
- None
- Called by
- 1
Reads stored settings via get_option(), cached per request but not free on a cold cache.
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 52.
Nothing here hands control to plugin code.
1 place in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.
What it touches
- hookthird-party callbacks
do_action()one call below wp_list_cats() - optionoption read or write
get_option()one call below wp_list_cats()
Further down the call graph this can also reach query, 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 wp_list_cats() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.
| When | Instructions | Calls it makes |
|---|---|---|
| always | 28–51 | _deprecated_function(), wp_parse_args(), wp_list_categories() |
Across PHP versions
Compiles the same on PHP 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 and 8.6-dev: 52 instructions, 28–51 executed per call, 8 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 · 3
- _deprecated_function()Marks a function as deprecated and inform when it has been used.
- wp_parse_args()Merges user defined arguments into defaults array.
- wp_list_categories()Displays or retrieves the HTML list of categories.
Used by · 1
- list_cats()Lists categories.
Source code
function wp_list_cats($args = '') { _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '2.1.0', 'wp_list_categories()' ); $parsed_args = wp_parse_args( $args ); // Map to new names. if ( isset($parsed_args['optionall']) && isset($parsed_args['all'])) $parsed_args['show_option_all'] = $parsed_args['all']; if ( isset($parsed_args['sort_column']) ) $parsed_args['orderby'] = $parsed_args['sort_column']; if ( isset($parsed_args['sort_order']) ) $parsed_args['order'] = $parsed_args['sort_order']; if ( isset($parsed_args['optiondates']) ) $parsed_args['show_last_update'] = $parsed_args['optiondates']; if ( isset($parsed_args['optioncount']) ) $parsed_args['show_count'] = $parsed_args['optioncount']; if ( isset($parsed_args['list']) ) $parsed_args['style'] = $parsed_args['list'] ? 'list' : 'break'; $parsed_args['title_li'] = ''; return wp_list_categories($parsed_args);}Changelog
Introduced in 1.2.0. 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 6.8.8 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
- Something wrong on this page? Report it and it gets fixed in the next regeneration.