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

---

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

## In this article

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

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

Outputs the beginning of the current level in the tree before elements are output.

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

### 󠀁[See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/walker_page/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_page/start_lvl/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$output`stringrequired

Used to append additional content (passed by reference).

`$depth`intoptional

Depth of page. Used for padding. Default 0.

`$args`arrayoptional

Arguments for outputting the next level.

Default:`array()`

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

    ```php
    public function start_lvl( &$output, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {
    	if ( isset( $args['item_spacing'] ) && 'preserve' === $args['item_spacing'] ) {
    		$t = "\t";
    		$n = "\n";
    	} else {
    		$t = '';
    		$n = '';
    	}
    	$indent  = str_repeat( $t, $depth );
    	$output .= "{$n}{$indent}<ul class='children'>{$n}";
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/class-walker-page.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.0/src/wp-includes/class-walker-page.php#L55)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.0/src/wp-includes/class-walker-page.php#L55-L65)

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

| Version | Description | 
| [2.1.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.1.0/) | Introduced. |

## User Contributed Notes

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