Title: WP_Screen::get_columns
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: August 20, 2026

---

# WP_Screen::get_columns(): int

## In this article

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

Gets the number of layout columns the user has selected.

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

The layout_columns option controls the max number and default number of columns.
This method returns the number of columns within that range selected by the user
via Screen Options. If no selection has been made, the default provisioned in layout_columns
is returned. If the screen does not support selecting the number of layout columns,
0 is returned.

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

 int Number of columns to display.

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

    ```php
    public function get_columns() {
    	return $this->columns;
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-screen.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.1/src/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-screen.php#L712)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.1/src/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-screen.php#L712-L714)

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

| Used by | Description | 
| [WP_Screen::render_screen_layout()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_screen/render_screen_layout/)`wp-admin/includes/class-wp-screen.php` |

Renders the option for number of columns on the page.

  |

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

| Version | Description | 
| [3.4.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/3.4.0/) | Introduced. |

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