Title: WP_User::_init_caps
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: February 24, 2026

---

# WP_User::_init_caps( string $cap_key )

## In this article

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

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

This method has been deprecated since 4.9.0. Use WP_User::for_site() instead.

Sets up capability object properties.

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

Will set the value for the ‘cap_key’ property to current database table prefix, 
followed by ‘capabilities’. Will then check to see if the property matching the ‘
cap_key’ exists and is an array. If so, it will be used.

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

 `$cap_key`stringoptional

Optional capability key

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

    ```php
    protected function _init_caps( $cap_key = '' ) {
    	global $wpdb;

    	_deprecated_function( __METHOD__, '4.9.0', 'WP_User::for_site()' );

    	if ( empty( $cap_key ) ) {
    		$this->cap_key = $wpdb->get_blog_prefix( $this->site_id ) . 'capabilities';
    	} else {
    		$this->cap_key = $cap_key;
    	}

    	$this->caps = $this->get_caps_data();

    	$this->get_role_caps();
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/class-wp-user.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/class-wp-user.php#L479)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/class-wp-user.php#L479-L493)

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

| Uses | Description | 
| [WP_User::get_caps_data()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/get_caps_data/)`wp-includes/class-wp-user.php` |

Gets the available user capabilities data.

  | 
| [WP_User::get_role_caps()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/get_role_caps/)`wp-includes/class-wp-user.php` |

Retrieves all of the capabilities of the user’s roles, and merges them with individual user capabilities.

  | 
| [wpdb::get_blog_prefix()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/get_blog_prefix/)`wp-includes/class-wpdb.php` |

Gets blog prefix.

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

Marks a function as deprecated and inform when it has been used.

  |

[Show 1 more](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/_init_caps/?output_format=md#)
[Show less](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/_init_caps/?output_format=md#)

| Used by | Description | 
| [WP_User::__call()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/__call/)`wp-includes/class-wp-user.php` |

Makes private/protected methods readable for backward compatibility.

  |

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

| Version | Description | 
| [4.9.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/4.9.0/) | Deprecated. Use [WP_User::for_site()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/for_site/) | 
| [2.1.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.1.0/) | Introduced. |

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