User Contributed Notes

1. Skip to note 9 content

   
   Codex
   
   
   11 years ago
   

   You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 16You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note

   List Categories and Descriptions
   This example will list, in alphabetic order, all categories presented as links to the corresponding category archive. Each category description is listed after the category link.

    'name',
   	'order'   => 'ASC'
   ) );
   
   foreach( $categories as $category ) {
   	$category_link = sprintf( 
   		'<a href="%1$s" alt="%2$s">%3$s</a>',
   		esc_url( get_category_link( $category->term_id ) ),
   		esc_attr( sprintf( __( 'View all posts in %s', 'textdomain' ), $category->name ) ),
   		esc_html( $category->name )
   	);
   	
   	echo '<p>' . sprintf( esc_html__( 'Category: %s', 'textdomain' ), $category_link ) . '</p> ';
   	echo '<p>' . sprintf( esc_html__( 'Description: %s', 'textdomain' ), $category->description ) . '</p>';
   	echo '<p>' . sprintf( esc_html__( 'Post Count: %s', 'textdomain' ), $category->count ) . '</p>';
   } 

2. Skip to note 10 content

   
   isMike()
   
   
   7 years ago
   

   You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 12You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note

   Function only returns categories in use by posts

   It is very important to note that by default, the get_category() will ONLY return categories that ARE IN USE. This means if no post is assigned to the category, then the category object for that category is not returned.

   This means if you are developer, and you created a category (maybe during testing), you should supply an argument array having the 'hide_empty' => false in it. Check the example usage below.

   $args = array(
   			'hide_empty'      => false,
   		);
   		get_categories($args); //This returns both used and unused categories

3. Skip to note 11 content

   
   Codex
   
   
   11 years ago
   

   You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 8You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note

   Get only top level categories
   To get the top level categories only, set parent value to zero. This example gets link and name of top level categories.

   $categories = get_categories( array(
   	'orderby' => 'name',
   	'parent'  => 0
   ) );
   
   foreach ( $categories as $category ) {
   	printf( '<a href="%1$s">%2$s</a><br />',
   		esc_url( get_category_link( $category->term_id ) ),
   		esc_html( $category->name )
   	);
   }

4. Skip to note 12 content

   
   boundless_ink
   
   
   5 years ago
   

   You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 1You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note

   Specific category parent title with linked menu of subcategories

   – could be used in a sidebar application

   <div class="category-menu-container">
   
   			<ul class="category-menu">
   				<li class="unstyled">
   					<h4 class="category-menu-heading">
   						
   					</h4>
   				</li>
   				 'name',
   					'order'   => 'ASC',
   					'parent'  => 130,
   				) );
   
   				foreach( $categories as $category ) {
   					$category_link = sprintf( 
   						'<a href="%1$s" alt="%2$s">%3$s</a>',
   						esc_url( get_category_link( $category->term_id ) ),
   						esc_attr( sprintf( __( 'View all posts in %s', 'textdomain' ), $category->name ) ),
   						esc_html( $category->name )
   					);
   
   					echo '<p>' . sprintf( esc_html__( '%s', 'textdomain' ), $category_link ) . '</p> ';
   				}
   				?>
   			</ul>
   
   		</div>

5. Skip to note 13 content

   
   cameronamcintyre
   
   
   8 years ago
   

   You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 0You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note

   If there are no categories to display, get_categories() will return an empty array.

6. Skip to note 14 content

   
   Ahir Hemant
   
   
   3 years ago
   

   You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 0You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note

   get all parent categories, and then based on parent id you can write a recurring function that gives you the child category of given id.

   function wpdocs_get_child_categories( $parent_category_id ) {
       $html = '';
       $child_categories = get_categories( array( 'parent' => $parent_category_id, 'hide_empty' => false, 'taxonomy' => $taxonomy ) );
       if ( ! empty( $child_categories ) ) {
           $html .= '<ul>';
           foreach ( $child_categories as $child_category ) {
               $html .= '<li>'.$child_category->name;
               $html .= get_child_categories( $child_category->term_id );
               $html .= '</li>';
           }
           $html .= '</ul>';
       }
       return $html;
   }
   
   function wpdocs_list_categories() {
       $html = '';
       $parent_categories = get_categories( array( 'parent' => 0, 'hide_empty' => false, 'taxonomy' => $taxonomy ) );
       $html .= '<ul>';
       foreach ( $parent_categories as $parent_category ) {
           $html .= '<li>';
           $html .= $parent_category->name;
           $html .= wpdocs_get_child_categories( $parent_category->term_id  );
           $html .= '</li>';
       }
       $html.= '</ul>';
       return $html;
   }
   add_shortcode( 'wpdocs_list_categories', 'wpdocs_list_categories' );

   Output look like this:

   A – Main category
   B    – Child Category
   C    – Child Category
   D      – Nested Child Category( if available )
   E – Main category
   F    – Child Category
   G    – Child Category
   H     – Nested Child Category( if available )

7. Skip to note 15 content

   
   Codex
   
   
   11 years ago
   

   You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: -2You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note

   Drop-down box as used in Parent category at post category page
   This is the code used in the built-in category page.

   wp_dropdown_categories( array(
   	'hide_empty'       => 0,
   	'name'             => 'category_parent',
   	'orderby'          => 'name',
   	'selected'         => $category->parent,
   	'hierarchical'     => true,
   	'show_option_none' => __('None')
   ) );

   The slightly altered code below will grab all categories and display them with indent for a new level (child category). The select box will have name and id attribute values of ‘select_name’. This select element will not display a default “none” as the original code was used to attach a category as a child to another category (or none).

   wp_dropdown_categories( array(
   	'hide_empty'   => 0,
   	'name'         => 'select_name',
   	'id'           => 'select_name',
   	'hierarchical' => true
   ) );

8. Skip to note 16 content

   
   Codex
   
   
   11 years ago
   

   You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: -2You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note

   Drop-down Box
   Here’s how to create a drop-down box of the subcategories of, say, a category that archives information on past events.
   This mirrors the example of the drop-down example of <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_get_archives/">wp_get_archives()</a> which shows how to create a drop-down box for monthly archives.

   Suppose the category whose subcategories you want to show is category 10, and that its category “nicename” is “archives”.

   <select name="event-dropdown"> 
   	<option value=""></option> 
   	 10 ) ); 
   	foreach ( $categories as $category ) {
   		printf( '<option value="%1$s">%2$s (%3$s)</option>',
   			esc_attr( '/category/archives/' . $category->category_nicename ),
   			esc_html( $category->cat_name ),
   			esc_html( $category->category_count )
   		);
     	}
    	?>
   </select>