wp_update_category( array $catarr ): int|false
- Since
- 2.0.0
- Source
wp-admin/includes/taxonomy.php:188
Description
If you want to update only some fields of an existing category, call this function with only the new values set inside $catarr.
Compatibility
- WordPress
- since 2.0.0
- 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
$catarrarray- The 'cat_ID' value is required. All other keys are optional.
Return value
int|false- The ID number of the new or updated Category on success. Zero or FALSE on failure.
Performance profile
How much work a call to wp_update_category() does, and what it touches: the algorithmic scaling, the Zend instruction count per call across PHP versions, the hooks it hands control to, and the core code that calls it. Measured from the compiled opcodes, not a stopwatch, so every number is identical on any machine running the same PHP version, and every function in core is ranked by cost.
- Cost class
- Heavy
- Scaling
- Constant
- Instructions
- 10–32
- Plugin surface
- None
- Called by
- 0
Reaches the database via get_term().
No loop in the body: the same number of instructions runs whatever you pass in.
Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 33.
Nothing here hands control to plugin code.
Nothing in core calls this; the cost is only what you spend yourself.
What it touches
- querycontent query
get_term()called directly - hookthird-party callbacks
apply_filters()one call below wp_update_category()
Further down the call graph this can also reach option, cache, serialize and transient. Those are the worst case, several calls deep and usually down an error path, not what a normal call pays.
What one call costs · 2 distinct outcomes
One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost wp_update_category() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.
| When | Instructions | Calls it makes |
|---|---|---|
isset($catarr) && $cat_id === false | 10 | none |
| always | 28–32 | get_term(), _make_cat_compat(), wp_slash(), array_merge(), wp_insert_category() |
Across PHP versions
Compiles the same on PHP 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 and 8.6-dev: 33 instructions, 10–32 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.
Uses · 4
- get_term()Gets all term data from database by term ID.
- _make_cat_compat()Updates category structure to old pre-2.3 from new taxonomy structure.
- wp_slash()Adds slashes to a string or recursively adds slashes to strings within an array.
- wp_insert_category()Updates an existing Category or creates a new Category.
Source code
function wp_update_category( $catarr ) { $cat_id = (int) $catarr['cat_ID']; if ( isset( $catarr['category_parent'] ) && ( $cat_id === (int) $catarr['category_parent'] ) ) { return false; } // First, get all of the original fields. $category = get_term( $cat_id, 'category', ARRAY_A ); _make_cat_compat( $category ); // Escape data pulled from DB. $category = wp_slash( $category ); // Merge old and new fields with new fields overwriting old ones. $catarr = array_merge( $category, $catarr ); return wp_insert_category( $catarr );}Changelog
Introduced in 2.0.0. 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-admin/includes/taxonomy.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.