Title: Walker_Comment::start_lvl
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: May 20, 2026

---

# Walker_Comment::start_lvl( string $output, int $depth, array $args = array() )

## In this article

 * [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/walker_comment/start_lvl/?output_format=md#description)
    - [See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/walker_comment/start_lvl/?output_format=md#see-also)
 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/walker_comment/start_lvl/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/walker_comment/start_lvl/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/walker_comment/start_lvl/?output_format=md#changelog)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/walker_comment/start_lvl/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Starts the list before the elements are added.

## 󠀁[Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/walker_comment/start_lvl/?output_format=md#description)󠁿

### 󠀁[See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/walker_comment/start_lvl/?output_format=md#see-also)󠁿

 * [Walker::start_lvl()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/Walker/start_lvl/)

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/walker_comment/start_lvl/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$output`stringrequired

Used to append additional content (passed by reference).

`$depth`intoptional

Depth of the current comment. Default 0.

`$args`arrayoptional

Uses `'style'` argument for type of HTML list.

Default:`array()`

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/walker_comment/start_lvl/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    public function start_lvl( &$output, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {
    	$GLOBALS['comment_depth'] = $depth + 1;

    	switch ( $args['style'] ) {
    		case 'div':
    			break;
    		case 'ol':
    			$output .= '<ol class="children">' . "\n";
    			break;
    		case 'ul':
    		default:
    			$output .= '<ul class="children">' . "\n";
    			break;
    	}
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/class-walker-comment.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.0/src/wp-includes/class-walker-comment.php#L55)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.0/src/wp-includes/class-walker-comment.php#L55-L69)

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/walker_comment/start_lvl/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [2.7.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.7.0/) | Introduced. |

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