the_title() │ WP 0.71

Display the current post title with optional HTML markup. It is accepted to use inside the WordPress Loop.

If the post is protected or private and you are on front-end, then "Protected" or "Private" will be displayed before the post title.

When you need to add post title to an HTML tag attribute, use the_title_attribute() function instead of the_title() or get_the_title().

<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
Uses: get_the_title()
1 time — 0.004764 sec (very slow) | 50000 times — 1.99 sec (fast) | PHP 7.1.2, WP 4.7.3

No Hooks.

Return

null|String. null when the result is displayed ($echo=true). String when ($echo=false).

Usage

the_title( $before, $after, $echo );
$before(string)
Text / HTML code to be placed before the title.
Default: ''
$after(string)
Text / HTML code to be placed after the title.
Default: ''
$echo(true/false)

Whether to echo or return the title.

  • true — display
  • false — return for further processing.

Default: true

Examples

0

#1 Display the title of the post in the html tag H3 

<?php the_title('<h3>', '</h3>'); ?>

or

<h3><?php the_title(); ?></h3>
0

#2 Get the title of the post in the variable

To get the value to use it in PHP, specify the third parameter $echo as false or 0. Or use the get_the_title()

$title = the_title( '', '', 0 );

// or
$title = get_the_title();
0

#3 The output of the header with the text before it: 

<?php the_title( 'Text before title: ' ); ?>

Changelog

Since 0.71 Introduced.

the_title() code WP 6.7.1

wp-includes/post-template.php 
function the_title( $before = '', $after = '', $display = true ) {
	$title = get_the_title();

	if ( strlen( $title ) === 0 ) {
		return;
	}

	$title = $before . $title . $after;

	if ( $display ) {
		echo $title;
	} else {
		return $title;
	}
}

title (of post page)

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