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Function Reference/get the category list

Description

Retrieve category list in either HTML list or custom format. Generally used for quick, delimited (eg: comma-separated) lists of categories, as part of a post's entry meta. For a more powerful, list-based function, see wp_list_categories().

Usage

<?php get_the_category_list$separator$parents$post_id ); ?>

Parameters

$separator
(string) (optional) Optional, default is empty string. Separator for between the categories.
Default: empty string
$parents
(string) (optional) Optional. How to display the parents. Values: 'multiple', 'single', empty string
Default: empty string
$post_id
(int) (optional) Optional. Post ID to retrieve categories.
Default: false

Return Values

(string) 

Notes

Categories are ordered by name regardless of the parent-child category relationship. See this example from wp_list_categories() to display the Post categories with the category relationship intact.

Examples

Implementation in WordPress default Twenty Eleven theme

In content-single.php:

<?php
	/* translators: used between list items, there is a space after the comma */
	$categories_list = get_the_category_list( __( ', ', 'twentyeleven' ) );

	/* translators: used between list items, there is a space after the comma */
	$tag_list = get_the_tag_list( '', __( ', ', 'twentyeleven' ) );
	if ( '' != $tag_list ) {
		$utility_text = __( 'This entry was posted in %1$s and tagged %2$s by <a href="%6$s">%5$s</a>. Bookmark the <a href="%3$s" title="Permalink to %4$s" rel="bookmark">permalink</a>.', 'twentyeleven' );
	} elseif ( '' != $categories_list ) {
		$utility_text = __( 'This entry was posted in %1$s by <a href="%6$s">%5$s</a>. Bookmark the <a href="%3$s" title="Permalink to %4$s" rel="bookmark">permalink</a>.', 'twentyeleven' );
	} else {
		$utility_text = __( 'This entry was posted by <a href="%6$s">%5$s</a>. Bookmark the <a href="%3$s" title="Permalink to %4$s" rel="bookmark">permalink</a>.', 'twentyeleven' );
	}

	printf(
		$utility_text,
		$categories_list,
		$tag_list,
		esc_url( get_permalink() ),
		the_title_attribute( 'echo=0' ),
		get_the_author(),
		esc_url( get_author_posts_url( get_the_author_meta( 'ID' ) ) )
	);
?>

Display as List Items

By leaving the $separator value empty, it will generate an unordered list instead, complete with classes.

<?php echo get_the_category_list(); ?>

Result:

<ul class="post-categories">
	<li>
		<a href="http://myblog.com/category/business" title="View all posts in Business" rel="category tag">Business</a>
	</li>
</ul>

Change Log

Since: 1.5.1

Source File

get_the_category_list() is located in wp-includes/category-template.php

Related

See also index of Function Reference and index of Template Tags.