Title: WP_REST_Post_Search_Handler::search_items
Published: December 6, 2018
Last modified: May 20, 2026

---

# WP_REST_Post_Search_Handler::search_items( WP_REST_Request $request ): array

## In this article

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

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

Searches posts for a given search request.

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

 `$request`[WP_REST_Request](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_request/)
required

Full REST request.

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

 array Associative array containing found IDs and total count for the matching search
results.

 * `ids` int[]
 * Array containing the matching post IDs.
 * `total` int
 * Total count for the matching search results.

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

    ```php
    public function search_items( WP_REST_Request $request ) {

    	// Get the post types to search for the current request.
    	$post_types = $request[ WP_REST_Search_Controller::PROP_SUBTYPE ];
    	if ( in_array( WP_REST_Search_Controller::TYPE_ANY, $post_types, true ) ) {
    		$post_types = $this->subtypes;
    	}

    	$query_args = array(
    		'post_type'           => $post_types,
    		'post_status'         => 'publish',
    		'paged'               => (int) $request['page'],
    		'posts_per_page'      => (int) $request['per_page'],
    		'ignore_sticky_posts' => true,
    	);

    	if ( ! empty( $request['search'] ) ) {
    		$query_args['s'] = $request['search'];
    	}

    	if ( ! empty( $request['exclude'] ) ) {
    		$query_args['post__not_in'] = $request['exclude'];
    	}

    	if ( ! empty( $request['include'] ) ) {
    		$query_args['post__in'] = $request['include'];
    	}

    	/**
    	 * Filters the query arguments for a REST API post search request.
    	 *
    	 * Enables adding extra arguments or setting defaults for a post search request.
    	 *
    	 * @since 5.1.0
    	 *
    	 * @param array           $query_args Key value array of query var to query value.
    	 * @param WP_REST_Request $request    The request used.
    	 */
    	$query_args = apply_filters( 'rest_post_search_query', $query_args, $request );

    	$query = new WP_Query();
    	$posts = $query->query( $query_args );
    	// Querying the whole post object will warm the object cache, avoiding an extra query per result.
    	$found_ids = wp_list_pluck( $posts, 'ID' );
    	$total     = $query->found_posts;

    	return array(
    		self::RESULT_IDS   => $found_ids,
    		self::RESULT_TOTAL => $total,
    	);
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/rest-api/search/class-wp-rest-post-search-handler.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.0/src/wp-includes/rest-api/search/class-wp-rest-post-search-handler.php#L55)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.0/src/wp-includes/rest-api/search/class-wp-rest-post-search-handler.php#L55-L105)

## 󠀁[Hooks](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_post_search_handler/search_items/?output_format=md#hooks)󠁿

 [apply_filters( ‘rest_post_search_query’, array $query_args, WP_REST_Request $request )](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/rest_post_search_query/)

Filters the query arguments for a REST API post search request.

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

| Uses | Description | 
| [WP_Query::__construct()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_query/__construct/)`wp-includes/class-wp-query.php` |

Constructor.

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

Plucks a certain field out of each object or array in an array.

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

Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.

  |

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

| Version | Description | 
| [5.0.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/5.0.0/) | Introduced. |

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