get_option()WP 1.5.0

Gets the value of the specified option by option name.

The function retrieves data from the cache, if it is possible, if not, the data is taken from the Database.

If the option is stored as a serialized string, it will be automatically unserialized on return.

Any scalar values will be returned as strings.

The return value can be filtered through the option_(option) hook.

1 time — 0.0025661 sec (very slow) | 50000 times — 0.20 sec (very fast) | PHP 7.4.33, WP 6.4.1

Return

Mixed.

  • option value.
  • False — when the option doesn't exist or cannot be retrieved.

Usage

get_option( $option, $default_value );
$option(string) (required)

Name of option to retrieve. Expected to not be SQL-escaped.

Some of the options names, that specified on settings admin page:

  • admin_email - E-mail of the site administrator.
  • blogname
  • blogdescription
  • blog_charset
  • date_format
  • default_category - defaul posts category.
  • home - URL of the site home page.
  • siteurl - URL of the admin home page.

    Note: siteurl differs from the get_bloginfo('siteurl') (which retirn the URL of home page), but not differs from the get_bloginfo('wpurl').

  • template - name of the current theme.
  • start_of_week - the first day of a week.
  • upload_path - default upload folder (dir).
  • posts_per_page - max number of posts for archive page.
  • posts_per_rss - max number of posts for RSS.

The full list of the options see here.

$default(mixed)
Optional. Default value to return if the option does not exist.
Default: false

Examples

1

#1 Display the site charset:

<p>Current charset: <?php echo get_option('blog_charset'); ?> </p>
0

#2 Display the site name in H1 tag:

<h1><?php echo get_option('blogname'); ?></h1>

OR short variant:

<h1><?= get_option('blogname'); ?></h1>
0

#3 Place the site admin email into the $admin_email variable:

$admin_email = get_option('admin_email');
0

#4 Handling of non-existing options

$no_exists_value = get_option( 'no_exists_value' );
var_dump( $no_exists_value ); //> false

$no_exists_value = get_option( 'no_exists_value', 'default_value' );
var_dump( $no_exists_value ); //> 'default_value'
0

#5 Filter the result of get_option() in runtime

A quick tip that the output of get_option() is filterable:

return apply_filters( "option_{$option}", maybe_unserialize( $value ), $option );

So you can change the output of get_option() at run time.

var_dump( get_option('active_plugins') ); //> an array of all plugins

add_filter( 'option_active_plugins', function( $plugins ){
	return [];
} );

var_dump( get_option('active_plugins') ); //> empty array

Helpful for disabling specific plugins when required.

Notes

  • Global. wpdb. $wpdb WordPress database abstraction object.

Changelog

Since 1.5.0 Introduced.

get_option() code WP 6.4.3

function get_option( $option, $default_value = false ) {
	global $wpdb;

	if ( is_scalar( $option ) ) {
		$option = trim( $option );
	}

	if ( empty( $option ) ) {
		return false;
	}

	/*
	 * Until a proper _deprecated_option() function can be introduced,
	 * redirect requests to deprecated keys to the new, correct ones.
	 */
	$deprecated_keys = array(
		'blacklist_keys'    => 'disallowed_keys',
		'comment_whitelist' => 'comment_previously_approved',
	);

	if ( isset( $deprecated_keys[ $option ] ) && ! wp_installing() ) {
		_deprecated_argument(
			__FUNCTION__,
			'5.5.0',
			sprintf(
				/* translators: 1: Deprecated option key, 2: New option key. */
				__( 'The "%1$s" option key has been renamed to "%2$s".' ),
				$option,
				$deprecated_keys[ $option ]
			)
		);
		return get_option( $deprecated_keys[ $option ], $default_value );
	}

	/**
	 * Filters the value of an existing option before it is retrieved.
	 *
	 * The dynamic portion of the hook name, `$option`, refers to the option name.
	 *
	 * Returning a value other than false from the filter will short-circuit retrieval
	 * and return that value instead.
	 *
	 * @since 1.5.0
	 * @since 4.4.0 The `$option` parameter was added.
	 * @since 4.9.0 The `$default_value` parameter was added.
	 *
	 * @param mixed  $pre_option    The value to return instead of the option value. This differs from
	 *                              `$default_value`, which is used as the fallback value in the event
	 *                              the option doesn't exist elsewhere in get_option().
	 *                              Default false (to skip past the short-circuit).
	 * @param string $option        Option name.
	 * @param mixed  $default_value The fallback value to return if the option does not exist.
	 *                              Default false.
	 */
	$pre = apply_filters( "pre_option_{$option}", false, $option, $default_value );

	/**
	 * Filters the value of all existing options before it is retrieved.
	 *
	 * Returning a truthy value from the filter will effectively short-circuit retrieval
	 * and return the passed value instead.
	 *
	 * @since 6.1.0
	 *
	 * @param mixed  $pre_option    The value to return instead of the option value. This differs from
	 *                              `$default_value`, which is used as the fallback value in the event
	 *                              the option doesn't exist elsewhere in get_option().
	 *                              Default false (to skip past the short-circuit).
	 * @param string $option        Name of the option.
	 * @param mixed  $default_value The fallback value to return if the option does not exist.
	 *                              Default false.
	 */
	$pre = apply_filters( 'pre_option', $pre, $option, $default_value );

	if ( false !== $pre ) {
		return $pre;
	}

	if ( defined( 'WP_SETUP_CONFIG' ) ) {
		return false;
	}

	// Distinguish between `false` as a default, and not passing one.
	$passed_default = func_num_args() > 1;

	if ( ! wp_installing() ) {
		$alloptions = wp_load_alloptions();

		if ( isset( $alloptions[ $option ] ) ) {
			$value = $alloptions[ $option ];
		} else {
			$value = wp_cache_get( $option, 'options' );

			if ( false === $value ) {
				// Prevent non-existent options from triggering multiple queries.
				$notoptions = wp_cache_get( 'notoptions', 'options' );

				// Prevent non-existent `notoptions` key from triggering multiple key lookups.
				if ( ! is_array( $notoptions ) ) {
					$notoptions = array();
					wp_cache_set( 'notoptions', $notoptions, 'options' );
				} elseif ( isset( $notoptions[ $option ] ) ) {
					/**
					 * Filters the default value for an option.
					 *
					 * The dynamic portion of the hook name, `$option`, refers to the option name.
					 *
					 * @since 3.4.0
					 * @since 4.4.0 The `$option` parameter was added.
					 * @since 4.7.0 The `$passed_default` parameter was added to distinguish between a `false` value and the default parameter value.
					 *
					 * @param mixed  $default_value  The default value to return if the option does not exist
					 *                               in the database.
					 * @param string $option         Option name.
					 * @param bool   $passed_default Was `get_option()` passed a default value?
					 */
					return apply_filters( "default_option_{$option}", $default_value, $option, $passed_default );
				}

				$row = $wpdb->get_row( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT option_value FROM $wpdb->options WHERE option_name = %s LIMIT 1", $option ) );

				// Has to be get_row() instead of get_var() because of funkiness with 0, false, null values.
				if ( is_object( $row ) ) {
					$value = $row->option_value;
					wp_cache_add( $option, $value, 'options' );
				} else { // Option does not exist, so we must cache its non-existence.
					$notoptions[ $option ] = true;
					wp_cache_set( 'notoptions', $notoptions, 'options' );

					/** This filter is documented in wp-includes/option.php */
					return apply_filters( "default_option_{$option}", $default_value, $option, $passed_default );
				}
			}
		}
	} else {
		$suppress = $wpdb->suppress_errors();
		$row      = $wpdb->get_row( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT option_value FROM $wpdb->options WHERE option_name = %s LIMIT 1", $option ) );
		$wpdb->suppress_errors( $suppress );

		if ( is_object( $row ) ) {
			$value = $row->option_value;
		} else {
			/** This filter is documented in wp-includes/option.php */
			return apply_filters( "default_option_{$option}", $default_value, $option, $passed_default );
		}
	}

	// If home is not set, use siteurl.
	if ( 'home' === $option && '' === $value ) {
		return get_option( 'siteurl' );
	}

	if ( in_array( $option, array( 'siteurl', 'home', 'category_base', 'tag_base' ), true ) ) {
		$value = untrailingslashit( $value );
	}

	/**
	 * Filters the value of an existing option.
	 *
	 * The dynamic portion of the hook name, `$option`, refers to the option name.
	 *
	 * @since 1.5.0 As 'option_' . $setting
	 * @since 3.0.0
	 * @since 4.4.0 The `$option` parameter was added.
	 *
	 * @param mixed  $value  Value of the option. If stored serialized, it will be
	 *                       unserialized prior to being returned.
	 * @param string $option Option name.
	 */
	return apply_filters( "option_{$option}", maybe_unserialize( $value ), $option );
}