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Function Reference/get the category

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Description

Returns an array of objects, one object for each category assigned to the post. This tag may be used outside The Loop by passing a post id as the parameter.

This function only returns results from the default "category" taxonomy. For custom taxonomies use get_the_terms.

Usage 

<?php get_the_category( $id ) ?>

Parameters

id
(integer) (optional) The post id.
Default: $post->ID (The current post ID)

Examples

Show All Categories as Links

This outputs all the categories assigned to the post as links. Must be used inside the loop. You can also use the function get_the_category_list() for this. 

<?php
$categories = get_the_category();
$separator = ' ';
$output = '';
if($categories){
	foreach($categories as $category) {
		$output .= '<a href="'.get_category_link( $category->term_id ).'" title="' . esc_attr( sprintf( __( "View all posts in %s" ), $category->name ) ) . '">'.$category->cat_name.'</a>'.$separator;
	}
echo trim($output, $separator);
}
?>

Show Category Images

This outputs category images named after the cat_ID with the alt attribute set to cat_name. You can also use any of the other member variables instead. 

<?php 
foreach((get_the_category()) as $category) { 
    echo '<img src="http://example.com/images/' . $category->cat_ID . '.jpg" alt="' . $category->cat_name . '" />'; 
} 
?>

Show the First Category Name Only

<?php
$category = get_the_category(); 
echo $category[0]->cat_name;
?>

(Echoes the first array ([0]) of $category.)

Make the first category link to the category page. 

<?php 
$category = get_the_category(); 
if($category[0]){
echo '<a href="'.get_category_link($category[0]->term_id ).'">'.$category[0]->cat_name.'</a>';
}
?>

Get the Post Categories From Outside the Loop

<?php
global $post;
$categories = get_the_category($post->ID);
var_dump($categories);
?>

Return Values

(array) 
Array of Category Objects

Member Variables in Returned Objects

term_id 
string '1'
name 
string 'Cat Name'
slug 
string 'cat-slug'
term_group 
string '0'
term_taxonomy_id 
string '1'
taxonomy 
string 'category'
description 
string
parent 
string '0'
count 
string '1'
object_id 
string '1'
cat_ID 
string '1' - the category id (also stored as 'term_id')
category_count 
string '1' - the number of uses of this category (also stored as 'count')
category_description 
string 'description' - the category description (also stored as 'description')
cat_name 
string 'Cat Name' - the category name (also stored as 'name')
category_nicename 
string 'cat-slug' - a slug generated from the category name (also stored as 'slug')
category_parent 
string '0' - the category id of the current category's parent. '0' for no parents. (also stored as 'parent')

Changelog

Source Code

Related

Categories: the_category(), the_category_rss(), single_cat_title(), category_description(), wp_dropdown_categories(), wp_list_categories(), get_the_category(), get_the_category_by_ID(), get_category_by_slug(), get_the_category_list(), get_category_parents(), get_category_link(), is_category(), in_category()

See also index of Function Reference and index of Template Tags.
Retrieved from "http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_the_category"

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