Title: WP_Comment_Query::query
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: April 28, 2025

---

# WP_Comment_Query::query( string|array $query ): array|int

## In this article

 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_comment_query/query/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_comment_query/query/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_comment_query/query/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_comment_query/query/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_comment_query/query/?output_format=md#changelog)

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

Sets up the WordPress query for retrieving comments.

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

 `$query`string|arrayrequired

Array or URL query string of parameters.

## 󠀁[Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_comment_query/query/?output_format=md#return)󠁿

 array|int List of comments, or number of comments when `'count'` is passed as a
query var.

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

    ```php
    public function query( $query ) {
    	$this->query_vars = wp_parse_args( $query );
    	return $this->get_comments();
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/class-wp-comment-query.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/class-wp-comment-query.php#L364)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/class-wp-comment-query.php#L364-L367)

## 󠀁[Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_comment_query/query/?output_format=md#related)󠁿

| Uses | Description | 
| [WP_Comment_Query::get_comments()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_comment_query/get_comments/)`wp-includes/class-wp-comment-query.php` |

Get a list of comments matching the query vars.

  | 
| [wp_parse_args()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_parse_args/)`wp-includes/functions.php` |

Merges user defined arguments into defaults array.

  |

| Used by | Description | 
| [WP_Comment_Query::__construct()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_comment_query/__construct/)`wp-includes/class-wp-comment-query.php` |

Constructor.

  |

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

| Version | Description | 
| [4.2.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/4.2.0/) | Moved parsing to [WP_Comment_Query::parse_query()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_comment_query/parse_query/). | 
| [4.1.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/4.1.0/) | Introduced `'comment__in'`, `'comment__not_in'`, `'post_author__in'`, `'post_author__not_in'`, `'author__in'`, `'author__not_in'`, `'post__in'`, `'post__not_in'`, `'include_unapproved'`, `'type__in'`, and `'type__not_in'` arguments to $query_vars. | 
| [3.1.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/3.1.0/) | Introduced. |

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