update_option() │ WP 1.0.0

Update the value of an option that was already added.

You do not need to serialize values. If the value needs to be serialized, then it will be serialized before it is inserted into the database. Remember, resources cannot be serialized or added as an option.

If the option does not exist, it will be created.

This function is designed to work with or without a logged-in user. In terms of security, plugin developers should check the current user's capabilities before updating any options.

Used By: remove_theme_mod(), set_theme_mod()

1 time — 0.001228 sec (very slow) | 50000 times — 9.96 sec (fast) | PHP 7.0.5, WP 4.5.2

Hooks from the function

pre_update_option_(option)

pre_update_option

default_option_(option)

update_option

update_option_(option)

updated_option

Return

true|false. True if the value was updated, false otherwise.

Usage

update_option( $option, $value, $autoload );

$option(string) (required): Name of the option to update. Expected to not be SQL-escaped.
$value(mixed) (required): Option value. Must be serializable if non-scalar. Expected to not be SQL-escaped.
$autoload(string|true|false): Whether to load the option when WordPress starts up. For existing options, $autoload can only be updated using update_option() $value is also changed. Accepts 'yes'|true to enable or 'no'|false to disable. For non-existent options, the default value is 'yes'.
Default: null

Examples

#1 Update the existing option `my_option`

set it to "new value":

<?php update_option('my_option', 'new value' ); ?>

#2 Update the option `extract_length` to 255.

If this option does not exist, update_option() will create it automatically.

Note that since version 4.2 in update_option() we can specify the autoload parameter, which will be updated if the option exists and passed to add_option() if the option does not exist and must be created...

$newvalue = '255' ;

update_option( 'extract_length', $newvalue, 'no' );

Same for WP version below 4.2:

If the option extract_length does not exist yet, add it using the function add_ooption() where we specify that the option is not loaded automatically (make it private).

$option_name = 'extract_length' ;
$newvalue    = '255' ;

if ( get_option( $option_name ) != $newvalue ) {
	update_option( $option_name, $newvalue );
}
else {
	$deprecated = '';
	$autoload = 'no';
	add_option( $option_name, $newvalue, $deprecated, $autoload );
}

#3 Update option only once on the first time installed

The code below will let user change options even after new option set.

function my_switch_theme() {
	update_option( 'thumbnail_size_w', 320 );
	update_option( 'thumbnail_size_h', 180 );
}

add_action('switch_theme', 'my_switch_theme');

If we use after_setup_theme, it will block the options and prevent users change it.

#4 true/false case as option value

According to the WordPress Codex (and my experiences developing with WP) note an important subtlety in the return value here:

“True if option value has changed, false if not or if update failed.

It is also recommended on some forums to check for the existence of an option via code:

if ( ! get_option('my_option') ) ...

But I don’t find this works when the option exists and I have set my_option to bool FALSE!

To handle all checking of existence of options, I exploit the update_option subtlety:

if ( FALSE === get_option('my_option') && FALSE === update_option('my_option',FALSE) ) {
add_option( 'my_option', $default_value );
}

The second check yields FALSE when setting the option with the value of FALSE produces no change…therefore if the value truly didn’t exist, it will be added with (in my case) the desired $default_value.

I know this seems extreme, but to the best of my knowledge this is the only way I’ve been able to preserve bool FALSE on my plugin options, and to assert valid actions based on the actual presence of my custom options.

Another variant

According to the WordPress Codex : get_option has $default_value param. will returned when option does not exist. So we can use $default_value as check our code can smaller & faster.

if( get_option( 'otp_name', 'SOME_UNIQUE_VALUE' ) === 'SOME_UNIQUE_VALUE' ){                

	add_option( 'otp_name', 'init_value' ); 
}

So no update_option call required.

Or use such hack

One workaround is to use as values integers 1 and 0 instead of booleans.

#5 Clear the options cache

Option values retrieved via WordPress functions are cached. If you modify an options outside of the Options API, then try to update a cached option, the update will fail and return false.

Use the following method to clear the options cache before trying to get or update the options on the same request:

<?php wp_cache_delete( 'alloptions', 'options' ); ?>

#6 Avoid to pass null

Please avoid to pass null as $value, for a false-y value just use 0, false or even an empty string. A null value may lead to potential bugs and side effects.

See this ticket for details.

#7 List of all options

Use wp_load_alloptions() to print a list of all options:

$alloptions = wp_load_alloptions();
print_r( $alloptions );

/* we get:
Array
(
	[siteurl] => https://wp-kama.com
	[blogname] => WordPress on your fingertips
	[blogdescription] => Site about the WordPress ...
	[users_can_register] => 1
	...
	...
)
*/

#8 Update Option Stored in Multi-Dimensional Array

Update multi-dimensional array and retrieve the entire array.

// store in one variable
$multidimensional_options = array(
  'inner_array' => array(
	   'foo'   => 'bar',
	   'hello' => 'world',
   ),
);

// Update entire array
update_option( 'my_multi_options', $multidimensional_options );

// Get entire array
$my_multi_options = get_option( 'my_multi_options' );

/* we get:
Array
(
	[inner_array] => Array
		(
			[foo] => bar
			[hello] => world
		)

)
*/

Notes

Global. wpdb. $wpdb WordPress database abstraction object.

Changelog

Since 1.0.0	Introduced.
Since 4.2.0	The `$autoload` parameter was added.

Code of `update_option() update option` ^{WP 5.9.3}

wp-includes/option.php

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

	wp_protect_special_option( $option );

	if ( is_object( $value ) ) {
		$value = clone $value;
	}

	$value     = sanitize_option( $option, $value );
	$old_value = get_option( $option );

	/**
	 * Filters a specific option before its value is (maybe) serialized and updated.
	 *
	 * The dynamic portion of the hook name, `$option`, refers to the option name.
	 *
	 * @since 2.6.0
	 * @since 4.4.0 The `$option` parameter was added.
	 *
	 * @param mixed  $value     The new, unserialized option value.
	 * @param mixed  $old_value The old option value.
	 * @param string $option    Option name.
	 */
	$value = apply_filters( "pre_update_option_{$option}", $value, $old_value, $option );

	/**
	 * Filters an option before its value is (maybe) serialized and updated.
	 *
	 * @since 3.9.0
	 *
	 * @param mixed  $value     The new, unserialized option value.
	 * @param string $option    Name of the option.
	 * @param mixed  $old_value The old option value.
	 */
	$value = apply_filters( 'pre_update_option', $value, $option, $old_value );

	/*
	 * If the new and old values are the same, no need to update.
	 *
	 * Unserialized values will be adequate in most cases. If the unserialized
	 * data differs, the (maybe) serialized data is checked to avoid
	 * unnecessary database calls for otherwise identical object instances.
	 *
	 * See https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38903
	 */
	if ( $value === $old_value || maybe_serialize( $value ) === maybe_serialize( $old_value ) ) {
		return false;
	}

	/** This filter is documented in wp-includes/option.php */
	if ( apply_filters( "default_option_{$option}", false, $option, false ) === $old_value ) {
		// Default setting for new options is 'yes'.
		if ( null === $autoload ) {
			$autoload = 'yes';
		}

		return add_option( $option, $value, '', $autoload );
	}

	$serialized_value = maybe_serialize( $value );

	/**
	 * Fires immediately before an option value is updated.
	 *
	 * @since 2.9.0
	 *
	 * @param string $option    Name of the option to update.
	 * @param mixed  $old_value The old option value.
	 * @param mixed  $value     The new option value.
	 */
	do_action( 'update_option', $option, $old_value, $value );

	$update_args = array(
		'option_value' => $serialized_value,
	);

	if ( null !== $autoload ) {
		$update_args['autoload'] = ( 'no' === $autoload || false === $autoload ) ? 'no' : 'yes';
	}

	$result = $wpdb->update( $wpdb->options, $update_args, array( 'option_name' => $option ) );
	if ( ! $result ) {
		return false;
	}

	$notoptions = wp_cache_get( 'notoptions', 'options' );

	if ( is_array( $notoptions ) && isset( $notoptions[ $option ] ) ) {
		unset( $notoptions[ $option ] );
		wp_cache_set( 'notoptions', $notoptions, 'options' );
	}

	if ( ! wp_installing() ) {
		$alloptions = wp_load_alloptions( true );
		if ( isset( $alloptions[ $option ] ) ) {
			$alloptions[ $option ] = $serialized_value;
			wp_cache_set( 'alloptions', $alloptions, 'options' );
		} else {
			wp_cache_set( $option, $serialized_value, 'options' );
		}
	}

	/**
	 * Fires after the value of a specific option has been successfully updated.
	 *
	 * The dynamic portion of the hook name, `$option`, refers to the option name.
	 *
	 * @since 2.0.1
	 * @since 4.4.0 The `$option` parameter was added.
	 *
	 * @param mixed  $old_value The old option value.
	 * @param mixed  $value     The new option value.
	 * @param string $option    Option name.
	 */
	do_action( "update_option_{$option}", $old_value, $value, $option );

	/**
	 * Fires after the value of an option has been successfully updated.
	 *
	 * @since 2.9.0
	 *
	 * @param string $option    Name of the updated option.
	 * @param mixed  $old_value The old option value.
	 * @param mixed  $value     The new option value.
	 */
	do_action( 'updated_option', $option, $old_value, $value );

	return true;
}