How to manipulate, create, update and delete WordPress Terms with PHP

Terms can be crea­ted, queried and edi­ted via PHP. Word­Press pro­vi­des func­tions for this pur­po­se.

Query a WordPress term with PHP #

To retrie­ve a term you can use the func­tion get_term($term_id, $taxo­no­my). For this you only need the ID and the taxo­no­my.

$term_id = 10;
$taxonomy = "post_tag";

/**
 * @var \WP_Term $Term
 */
$Term = get_term($term_id, $taxonomy);

Query a WordPress term by slug, name or term ID #

Via get_term_by($field, $value, $taxo­no­my, $out­put = OBJECT, $fil­ter = ‘raw’) you can also query a term by its slug, name or ID.

/**
 * Query WordPress Term with the Slug
 * @var \WP_Term|array|false $Term
 */
$Term = get_term_by("slug", "i-am-a-slug", "post_tag");

/**
 * Query WordPress Term with the Name
 * @var \WP_Term|array|false $Term
 */
$Term = get_term_by("name", "i am a name", "post_tag");

/**
 * Query WordPress Term with the Term ID
 * @var \WP_Term|array|false $Term
 */
$Term = get_term_by("term_id", 10, "post_tag");

Query all WordPress terms from one taxonomy #

Using get_terms($args) you can query all terms of a taxo­no­my.

$args = array(
   'taxonomy' => 'post_tag',
   'hide_empty' => false
);

/**
 * @var array<\WP_Term> $Terms
 */
$Terms = get_terms($args);

Inserting a new WordPress term at a taxonomy #

New terms can be added via wp_insert_term($term, $taxo­no­my, $args = array()). If the term alre­a­dy exists, it will be updated.

/**
 * Arguments can be specified optionally
 */
$args = array(
   'description' => 'Description',
   'parent' => 0,
   'slug' => ''
);

/**
 * Create new term in the taxonomy post_tag
 */
$term_id = wp_insert_term('I am a new term', 'post_tag', $args);

Delete a term on WordPress via PHP #

Terms can also be remo­ved quick­ly and easi­ly via PHP. For this pur­po­se, the func­tion wp_delete_term($term_id,$taxonomy) exists.

/**
 * Deletes the term with term ID 10 in the taxonomy post_tag
 */
$result = wp_delete_term(10, 'post_tag');

Query meta data of a term #

Like posts, terms can also con­tain meta­da­ta. The­se can be retrie­ved via get_term_meta($term_id, $meta_key, $sin­gle).

/**
 * Returns a single value
 * @var string|int|mixed $my_meta_data
 */
$my_meta_data = get_term_meta(10,'my_meta_data', true);

/**
 * Returns an array
 * @var array $meine_meta_daten
 */
$my_meta_data = get_term_meta(10,'my_meta_data');

Deleting metadata of a term in WordPress #

Meta­da­ta of terms can be dele­ted in Word­Press via delete_term_meta($term_id, $meta_key, $meta_value = ”).

$result = delete_term_meta(10, 'my_meta_data');

Update/create metadata of a term via PHP #

To update alre­a­dy exis­ting meta­da­ta of a term the func­tion update_term_meta($term_id, $meta_key, $meta_value, $prev_value = ”) is used. If the data does not exist yet, it will be crea­ted.

$result = update_term_meta(10, 'my_meta_data', 'this will be outputed');