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Function Reference/get user meta

Description

Retrieve a single meta field or all fields of user_meta data for the given user. Uses get_metadata(). This function replaces the deprecated get_usermeta() function.

Usage

<?php get_user_meta($user_id, $key, $single); ?>

Parameters

$user_id

(integer) (required) The ID of the user whose data should be retrieved.

Default: None

$key

(string) (optional) The meta_key in the wp_usermeta table for the meta_value to be returned. If left empty, will return all user_meta fields for the given user.

Default: (empty string)

$single

(boolean) (optional) If true return value of meta data field, if false return an array. This parameter has no effect if $key is left blank.

Default: false

Return Values

(mixed): Will be an array if $single is false or will be value of meta data field if $single is true

NOTE: If the meta value does not exist and $single is true the function will return an empty string. If $single is false an empty array is returned.

Examples

This example returns and then displays the last name for user id 9.

<?php 
  $user_id = 9;
  $key = 'last_name';
  $single = true;
  $user_last = get_user_meta( $user_id, $key, $single ); 
  echo '<p>The '. $key . ' value for user id ' . $user_id . ' is: ' . $user_last . '</p>'; 
?>

The last_name value for user id 9 is Franklin

Getting all meta data

This example demonstrates leaving the $key argument blank, in order to retrieve all meta data for the given user (in this example, user_id = 9):

<?php
  $all_meta_for_user = get_user_meta( 9 );
  print_r( $all_meta_for_user );
?>

Results:

Array ( [first_name] => Array ( [0] => Tom ) [last_name] => Array ( [0] => Auger) [nickname] => Array ( [0] => tomauger ) [description] => etc.... )

Note: in order to access the data in this example, you need to dereference the array that is returned for each key, like so:

$last_name = $all_meta_for_user['last_name'][0];

To avoid this, you may want to run a simple array_map() on the results of get_user_meta() in order to take only the first index of each result (this emulating what the $single argument does when $key is provided:

  if( $all_meta_for_user = get_user_meta( $user_id ) ) 
    $all_meta_for_user = array_map( function( $a ){ return $a[0]; }, get_user_meta( $user_id ) );

  print_r( $all_meta_for_user );

Results:

Array ( [first_name] => Tom [last_name] => Auger [nickname] => tomauger [description] => etc.... )

Notes

Filters

Change Log

Since: 3.0

Source File

get_user_meta() is located in wp-includes/user.php.