Title: WP_List_Table::get_columns
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: April 28, 2025

---

# WP_List_Table::get_columns(): array

## In this article

 * [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_list_table/get_columns/?output_format=md#description)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_list_table/get_columns/?output_format=md#return)
 * [More Information](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_list_table/get_columns/?output_format=md#more-information)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_list_table/get_columns/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_list_table/get_columns/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_list_table/get_columns/?output_format=md#changelog)

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

Gets a list of columns.

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

The format is:

 * `'internal-name' => 'Title'`

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

 array

## 󠀁[More Information](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_list_table/get_columns/?output_format=md#more-information)󠁿

This method should be overridden to return an associative array of columns. The 
associative array should follow the format 'slug' => array( 'Title', true ). Typically,
you will use this in the prepare_items() method to build part of the _column_headers
property.

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

    ```php
    public function get_columns() {
    	die( 'function WP_List_Table::get_columns() must be overridden in a subclass.' );
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-list-table.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-list-table.php#L1189)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-list-table.php#L1189-L1191)

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

| Used by | Description | 
| [WP_List_Table::get_default_primary_column_name()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_list_table/get_default_primary_column_name/)`wp-admin/includes/class-wp-list-table.php` |

Gets the name of the default primary column.

  |

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

| Version | Description | 
| [3.1.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/3.1.0/) | Introduced. |

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