get_option() | WordPress Function

In this video, I will explain the get_option() function, a built-in WordPress function that retrieves an option value.

The get_option() function accepts two (2) parameters:

The first parameter is for the option name, and the second is for the default value if the option does not exist.

The first parameter is the only required parameter in this function.

Here are some examples:

In the first example, I displayed the output of the option ‘api_client_id.’ WordPress will get the option name that you provided and will search the record with the same value of option_name in the ‘wp_options’ table of your database.

In Example 2.1, I tried to display the value of the ‘default_color’ option, but there was no existing option found in the database, so it returned ‘null.’

In example 2.2, I tried to display the value of the ‘_api_client_id’ option, but WordPress didn’t find it in the database due to the misspelled option name, so it returned ‘null.’

In example 3, I tried to display the value of the options that don’t exist in the database, but I provided default values so both examples don’t return ‘null’ but the default values I provided.

When adding options like this: add_option( 'my_option_name', 'value' ) and then retrieving them with get_option( 'my_option_name' ), the returned values will be:

false returns string(0) ""
true returns string(1) "1"
0 returns string(1) "0"
1 returns string(1) "1"
'0' returns string(1) "0"
'1' returns string(1) "1"
null returns string(0) ""

Reference: https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_option/