This quick reference is for the WordPress $post object. This object contains a bunch of info specific to each WordPress post. Scroll down for the complete table of object properties and download a PDF version at the bottom of this post.
The values in the chart below can be accessed for a given post within the loop using the following syntax:
$post->$key;
…where key is the property you want to access below. For example, you’ll notice at the top of this post is a post summary within a formatted div element. The summary is just a formatted version of the post excerpt, but if there’s no post excerpt I don’t want that div element showing up empty, so in that case, I hide it using the following code:
<?php
if($post->post_excerpt != '') :
echo '<div id="summary">';
echo '<strong>Summary:</strong><br />';
the_excerpt();
echo '</div>';
endif;
?>
| Property | Sample Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| post_author | 1 | Post author’s user number |
| post_date | 2008-03-15 19:22:29 | |
| post_date_gmt | 2008-03-16 02:22:29 | GMT = Greenwich Mean Time |
| post_content | Actual post content, including markup | |
| post_title | Post title | |
| post_category | 0 | Number representing post category ID# |
| post_excerpt | Plain text without markup | |
| post_status | publish, pending, draft, private, inherit | Current status of the post |
| comment_status | open | Possible values: open / closed |
| ping_status | open | open / closed |
| post_password | Will be empty if no password | |
| post_name | statistics | Same as post slug |
| to_ping | http://www.1to-ping.com, http://www.2to-ping.com, http://www.3to-ping.com | List of urls to ping when post is published (for unpublished posts) |
| pinged | http://www.pinged1.com, http://www.pinged2.com, http://www.pinged3.com | List of urls that have been pinged (for published posts) |
| post_modified | 2008-07-01 19:41:28 | Date the post was last modified |
| post_modified_gmt | 2008-07-02 02:41:28 | GMT date post was last modified |
| post_content_filtered | Exists to store a cached version of post content (most likely with all the the_content filters already applied). If you’ve got a plugin that runs a very resource heavy filter on content, you might consider caching the results with post_content_filtered, and calling that from the front end instead. | |
| post_parent | ID# of this post’s parent. In the case of attachments, will be the post it’s attached to. Defaults to 0 if no parent. | |
| guid | http://www.blogurl/postslug | Global Unique Identifier. The “real” URL to the post, not the permalink version. For pages, this is the actual URL. In the case of files (attachments), this holds the URL to the file. |
| menu_order | 0 1 2 etc… |
Holds values for display order of pages. Only works with pages, not posts. |
| post_type | page post attachment revision |
Self-explanatory for pages and posts. Any files uploaded are attachments and post revisions saved as revision |
| post_mime_type | text/html image/png image/jpg |
Only used for files (attachments). Contains the MIME type of the uploaded file. |
| comment_count | 4 | Number of comments, pings, and trackbacks combined |
Thanks to all you who commented on this post to help fill in some of the missing values!
guid stands for global unique identifier. i think, they just say that an url identifies an object and this object is identified by exactly one url, if itis normalized.
Thanks Thomas! I’ll get that added
saved me, thanks dude!!!!!
Thanks a lot for this reference! helped me figure out a problem that was taking me hours.
Thanks for this summary – saved me big time
post_parent should give you the ID of a subpage’s parent page.
post_type can also be “attachment”, post_status will be “inherit” then..
this is how wordpress holds images
I love you for this post.
This is a great resource, I’m eternally forgetting what the variable that I’m after is called. A couple of points:
post_guid does indeed hold the url to the post, but it is the REAL url (not the permalink version), so if you’re linking to it from within the site, use get_permalink(), not guid.
menu_order holds the values for display order of pages (only works with pages, not posts).
post_content_filtered exists to store a cached version of post content (most likely with all the the_content filters already applied). If you’ve got a plugin that runs a very resource heavy filter on content, you might consider caching the results with post_content_filtered, and calling that from the front end instead.
looking for a list of keys for this array.
anyone?
There’s a link to download a spreadsheet at the end of the post.
Great post – but the Excel file seems to have gone missing!
Lost a bunch of files the other day…it’s back now.
My man… HUGE!!! Thanks so much for the help! Took me a while to figure out how to echo the title post inside a php query, thanks agin!
for sure a good resource. However, could anyone please be so kind to list down available variables in “Post” array or “key”? I have been struggling finding a way to extract post title and then manipulate it…
thanks in advance for helping.
That’s just what the attached excel spreadsheet shows how to do. Use $post->post_title to get the title.
useful list except i see no property for a post’s permalink. this would be a pretty essential one especially in custom loops for short code functions since they must return a string so have html show up in the right location of a post.
it must exist since inside a loop using WP_Query you can execute the_permalink()
Help?
after some research – doesn’t exist but you can do:
$link = get_permalink($post->ID);
That’s true, the $post object doesn’t contain a permalink property, so you have to do just what you’ve done here.