Get current category ID of the active page

Question

Looking to pull the category ID of a specific page in WordPress that is listing all posts using that specific category. Tried the below but not working. I am able to get the category name using single_term_title.

$category = single_term_title("", false);
$catid = get_cat_ID( $category );

$category is displaying "Entertainment" for example. But I also need the ID of "Entertainment". How would I go about this?

it is a custom taxonomy - trying to use this on a file named `taxonomy-event-categories-entertainment.php` — RonnieT, Jan 12 '12 at 03:32

score 212 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 04 '15 at 15:25

212

If it is a category page,you can get id of current category by:

$category = get_category( get_query_var( 'cat' ) );
$cat_id = $category->cat_ID;

If you want to get category id of any particular category on any page, try using :

$category_id = get_cat_ID('Category Name');

edited Feb 04 '15 at 15:25

Rizier123

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answered Jan 12 '12 at 09:47

Ram Mehar Deswal

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Exactly what I was looking for. Better than the above answer if you are creating a generic Category template as you only get the Category the page will display as opposed to the multi-Category array from the above. – theflowersoftime Sep 25 '12 at 16:59
It worked perfectly for me. I was having problem getting the ID and worked lovely for me. Saved hours :) – prakashchhetri Jul 12 '13 at 16:35
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Need to replace the correct answer! The answer marked correct, misled me. – Mosh Feu Jun 18 '14 at 12:16
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This answer has some unnecessary code. The first line of code gets the full category data in get_category function by using one parameter - CATEGORY ID (because this is what get_query_var( 'cat' ) returns). The second line of code actually retrieves the id from the data. This means that the get_category function is completely unused here and if someone wants only the id, then just get_query_var( 'cat' ) should be used! – Bartosz Górski Aug 26 '14 at 12:36
@RamMeharDeswal is it possible to use this method to get the child category ? – Rain Man Oct 30 '15 at 01:30
Good code mate, it works with pagination!!! get_the_category() gave a whole array in pagination instead of the current category. someone should changed the correct answer to this one! – Qin Wang Nov 27 '15 at 10:46
My test site contain uncategorized my post don't select any category and `get_query_var( 'cat' )` return empty. – vee Dec 08 '18 at 09:57

ash108 · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-24T13:47:14.710

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You can try using get_the_category():

$categories = get_the_category();
$category_id = $categories[0]->cat_ID;

edited Nov 24 '13 at 13:47

answered Jan 12 '12 at 03:47

ash108

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$category[0]->cat_ID to be accurate. – nemesisdesign Sep 03 '12 at 18:25
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This method actually checks the first category of the first post on the page. If there are no posts or if the first post has multiple categories, this will fail or return incorrect info. – Jordan Eldredge Nov 09 '12 at 20:59
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I agree with @JordanEldredge, this will return incorrect info. – Bill May 21 '13 at 14:10
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This will return the first category of the first post of the page. – Shaffe Feb 05 '14 at 23:38
It will also fail if the viewed page is a subcategory. Check for the output of the `$categories` array. – Mooncake Apr 29 '14 at 13:34
My test site contain no other category and the post doesn't select it so this return nothing. – vee Dec 08 '18 at 09:56

score 39 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 18 '13 at 08:05

39

The oldest but fastest way you can use is:

$cat_id = get_query_var('cat');

answered Jun 18 '13 at 08:05

Fred K

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this seems perfect. are there drawbacks to this over Ram Mehar Deswal's answer? – dewd Jan 27 '14 at 15:38
This is actually the working solution, it will display the category of the viewed page. – Mooncake Apr 29 '14 at 13:35
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@dewd look for Bartosz Górski's comment in Ram Mehar Deswal's answer. He is completly right and this answer right here does all you need. – honk31 Apr 20 '15 at 18:14
@honk31 thx for pointing me to that you good SO citizen you! :) – dewd Apr 21 '15 at 10:41
get_query_var( 'cat' ) is falsy for me – Dominic Dec 01 '19 at 17:36

score 24 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 10 '14 at 11:00

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I use the get_queried_object function to get the current category on a category.php template page.

$current_category = get_queried_object();

Jordan Eldredge is right, get_the_category is not suitable here.

answered Jan 10 '14 at 11:00

Shaffe

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Nice, never seen this one before. – Drew Baker Sep 08 '15 at 22:08
If the result is not the expected one, invoke `wp_reset_query();` to restore the default WP_Query instance. – Shaffe Sep 09 '15 at 23:49
This is actually the most useful Wordpress function I have ever found. It's usable everywhere: pages, articles, categories etc. – frodeborli Mar 29 '16 at 09:32

score 4 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 04 '15 at 15:25

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I think some of the above may work but using the get_the_category function seems tricky and may give unexpected results.

I think the most direct and simple way to access the cat ID in a category page is:

$wp_query->query_vars['cat']

Cheers

edited Feb 04 '15 at 15:25

Rizier123

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answered Sep 22 '13 at 23:08

Jorge Orpinel Pérez

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Perfect! Thanks. – Beny Nov 20 '18 at 16:25

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 12 '20 at 16:30

if you need the category ID, you would get it via get_query_var, that is capable of retrieving all publicly queryble variables.

$category_id = get_query_var('cat');

here is an example to get the category name

$category_name = get_query_var('category_name');

and of course the all mighty get_queried_object

$queried_object = get_queried_object();

that is returning the complete taxonomy term object (when used on a taxonomy-archive page..)

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered May 21 '13 at 14:16

I found this question whilst looking for exactly what you asked. Unfortunately you have accepted an incorrect answer. For the sake of other people who are trying to achieve what we were trying to achieve, I thought I'd post the correct answer.

$cur_cat = get_cat_ID( single_cat_title("",false) );

As you said single_term_title("", false); was correctly returning the category title, I'm not sure why you would have had troubles with your code; but the above code works flawlessly for me.

Bheru Lal Lohar · Answer 8 · 2017-07-19T06:38:05.413

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Alternative -

 $catID = the_category_ID($echo=false);

EDIT: Above function is deprecated please use get_the_category()

edited Jul 19 '17 at 06:38

answered Feb 04 '15 at 12:28

Bheru Lal Lohar

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FYI: This function has been deprecated. – Sagive Jul 18 '17 at 15:32

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 09 '16 at 17:02

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I used this for breadcrums in the category template page:

$cat_obj = $wp_query->get_queried_object();
$thiscat_id = $cat_obj->term_id;
$thiscat = get_category($thiscat_id);
$parentcat = get_category($thiscat->parent);

answered Aug 09 '16 at 17:02

nh-labs

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score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 15 '22 at 13:00

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I tested all these answers and this is the only one which works on all archive page types including posts page.

$category_id = get_the_category( get_the_ID());
$cat_id      = get_category($category_id[0]->term_id);

answered Jan 15 '22 at 13:00

Sam

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Feb 10 '17 at 04:43

$cats = wp_get_post_terms( $post->ID, 'product_cat' );
foreach($cats as $cat){
/*check for category having parent or not except category id=1 which is wordpress default category (Uncategorized)*/
  if($cat->parent != '0' && $cat->term_id != 1){
    echo '<h2 class="link"><a href="'.get_category_link($cat->term_id ).'">'.$cat->name.'</a></h2>';
    break;
  }
}

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 22 '19 at 18:11

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Tried above for solutions to find cat ID of a post, but nothing worked, used the following instead:

$obj = get_queried_object();
$c_id = wp_get_post_categories($obj->ID);

answered Jan 22 '19 at 18:11

Robert Sinclair

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score 0 · Answer 13 · edited Sep 16 '21 at 20:20

0

Here's an efficient method to get category meta data, along with HTML if you want to print it out on the front-end:

    <?php
    
    function custom_get_categories() {
      $categories = get_the_category();
      $uncategorised_id = get_cat_ID('Uncategorized');
      $custom_category_link = '';
    
      foreach ($categories as $category) {
        if($category->category_parent == $uncategorised_id || $category->cat_ID == $uncategorised_id) {
          continue;
        }
        
        $custom_category_link = get_category_link($category->cat_ID); ?>
    
        <a href ="<?php echo $custom_category_link ?>"> 
    <?php echo "\n\nCategory ID: " . $category->cat_ID . "\nCategory Name" . $category->name;  ?> </a>
    
        <?php
      }``
    }
    
     ?>

edited Sep 16 '21 at 20:20

answered Sep 16 '21 at 09:54

Hemant Adhikari

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Hello Hemant Adhikari. Please separate the text from the code in your post. – Toni Sep 16 '21 at 10:39
Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-ask). – Community Sep 16 '21 at 12:15

Get current category ID of the active page

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