Title: WP_Customize_Widgets::preview_sidebars_widgets
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: February 24, 2026

---

# WP_Customize_Widgets::preview_sidebars_widgets( array $sidebars_widgets ): array

## In this article

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

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

When previewing, ensures the proper previewing widgets are used.

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

Because [wp_get_sidebars_widgets()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_get_sidebars_widgets/)
gets called early at ‘init’ (via [wp_convert_widget_settings()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_convert_widget_settings/))
and can set global variable `$_wp_sidebars_widgets` to the value of `get_option('
sidebars_widgets' )` before the Customizer preview filter is added, it has to be
reset after the filter has been added.

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

 `$sidebars_widgets`arrayrequired

List of widgets for the current sidebar.

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

 array

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

    ```php
    public function preview_sidebars_widgets( $sidebars_widgets ) {
    	$sidebars_widgets = get_option( 'sidebars_widgets', array() );

    	unset( $sidebars_widgets['array_version'] );
    	return $sidebars_widgets;
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/class-wp-customize-widgets.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/class-wp-customize-widgets.php#L1263)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/class-wp-customize-widgets.php#L1263-L1268)

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

| Uses | Description | 
| [get_option()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_option/)`wp-includes/option.php` |

Retrieves an option value based on an option name.

  |

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

| Version | Description | 
| [3.9.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/3.9.0/) | Introduced. |

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