Title: _nav_menu_item_id_use_once
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: May 20, 2026

---

# _nav_menu_item_id_use_once( string $id, object $item ): string

## In this article

 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_nav_menu_item_id_use_once/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_nav_menu_item_id_use_once/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_nav_menu_item_id_use_once/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_nav_menu_item_id_use_once/?output_format=md#changelog)

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

This function’s access is marked private. This means it is not intended for use 
by plugin or theme developers, only by core. It is listed here for completeness.

Prevents a menu item ID from being used more than once.

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

 `$id`stringrequired

`$item`objectrequired

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

 string

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

    ```php
    function _nav_menu_item_id_use_once( $id, $item ) {
    	static $_used_ids = array();

    	if ( in_array( $item->ID, $_used_ids, true ) ) {
    		return '';
    	}

    	$_used_ids[] = $item->ID;

    	return $id;
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/nav-menu-template.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.0/src/wp-includes/nav-menu-template.php#L634)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.0/src/wp-includes/nav-menu-template.php#L634-L644)

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

| Version | Description | 
| [3.0.1](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/3.0.1/) | Introduced. |

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