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get_user_by( string $field, int|string $value )

Retrieve user info by a given field

Contents

Description
- Parameters
- Return
- Source
- Changelog
Related
- Uses
- Used By
User Contributed Notes

Description Description

Parameters Parameters

$field: (string) (Required) The field to retrieve the user with. id | ID | slug | email | login.
$value: (int|string) (Required) A value for $field. A user ID, slug, email address, or login name.

Return Return

(WP_User|false) WP_User object on success, false on failure.

Source Source

File: wp-includes/pluggable.php

function get_user_by( $field, $value ) {
	$userdata = WP_User::get_data_by( $field, $value );

	if ( !$userdata )
		return false;

	$user = new WP_User;
	$user->init( $userdata );

	return $user;
}

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Changelog Changelog

Changelog
Version	Description
4.4.0	Added 'ID' as an alias of 'id' for the `$field` parameter.
2.8.0	Introduced.

User Contributed Notes User Contributed Notes

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Contributed by Codex — 3 years ago
Default usage
```
$user = get_user_by( 'email', 'user@example.com' );
echo 'User is ' . $user->first_name . ' ' . $user->last_name;
```
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Contributed by Codex — 3 years ago
Sample response of
```
$author_obj = get_user_by('id', 1);
```
object(WP_User)#96 (7) { ["data"]=> object(stdClass)#95 (10) { ["ID"]=> string(1) "1" ["user_login"]=> string(10) "superadmin" ["user_pass"]=> string(34) "$P$Bx0Jgq6/Qw/o3A5fXcVKg4jxQr2PAB1" ["user_nicename"]=> string(10) "superadmin" ["user_email"]=> string(16) "user@example.com" ["user_url"]=> string(0) "" ["user_registered"]=> string(19) "2014-02-21 21:31:40" ["user_activation_key"]=> string(0) "" ["user_status"]=> string(1) "0" ["display_name"]=> string(10) "superadmin" } ["ID"]=> int(1) ["caps"]=> array(1) { ["administrator"]=> bool(true) } ["cap_key"]=> string(25) "wp_capabilities" ["roles"]=> array(1) { [0]=> string(13) "administrator" } ["allcaps"]=> array(63) { ["switch_themes"]=> bool(true) ["edit_themes"]=> bool(true) ["activate_plugins"]=> bool(true) ["edit_plugins"]=> bool(true) ["edit_users"]=> bool(true) ["edit_files"]=> bool(true) ["manage_options"]=> bool(true) ["moderate_comments"]=> bool(true) ["manage_categories"]=> bool(true) ["manage_links"]=> bool(true) ["upload_files"]=> bool(true) ["import"]=> bool(true) ["unfiltered_html"]=> bool(true) ["edit_posts"]=> bool(true) ["edit_others_posts"]=> bool(true) ["edit_published_posts"]=> bool(true) ["publish_posts"]=> bool(true) ["edit_pages"]=> bool(true) ["read"]=> bool(true) ["level_10"]=> bool(true) ["level_9"]=> bool(true) ["level_8"]=> bool(true) ["level_7"]=> bool(true) ["level_6"]=> bool(true) ["level_5"]=> bool(true) ["level_4"]=> bool(true) ["level_3"]=> bool(true) ["level_2"]=> bool(true) ["level_1"]=> bool(true) ["level_0"]=> bool(true) ["edit_others_pages"]=> bool(true) ["edit_published_pages"]=> bool(true) ["publish_pages"]=> bool(true) ["delete_pages"]=> bool(true) ["delete_others_pages"]=> bool(true) ["delete_published_pages"]=> bool(true) ["delete_posts"]=> bool(true) ["delete_others_posts"]=> bool(true) ["delete_published_posts"]=> bool(true) ["delete_private_posts"]=> bool(true) ["edit_private_posts"]=> bool(true) ["read_private_posts"]=> bool(true) ["delete_private_pages"]=> bool(true) ["edit_private_pages"]=> bool(true) ["read_private_pages"]=> bool(true) ["delete_users"]=> bool(true) ["create_users"]=> bool(true) ["unfiltered_upload"]=> bool(true) ["edit_dashboard"]=> bool(true) ["update_plugins"]=> bool(true) ["delete_plugins"]=> bool(true) ["install_plugins"]=> bool(true) ["update_themes"]=> bool(true) ["install_themes"]=> bool(true) ["update_core"]=> bool(true) ["list_users"]=> bool(true) ["remove_users"]=> bool(true) ["add_users"]=> bool(true) ["promote_users"]=> bool(true) ["edit_theme_options"]=> bool(true) ["delete_themes"]=> bool(true) ["export"]=> bool(true) ["administrator"]=> bool(true) } ["filter"]=> NULL }
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Contributed by Joseph G. — 2 years ago

I always prefer to check if the variable ($user) is empty or not before echoing any properties of the $user object:

$user = get_user_by( ’email’, ‘user@example.com’ );

if ( ! empty( $user ) ) {
echo ‘User is ‘ . $user->first_name . ‘ ‘ . $user->last_name;
}

This is to keep things clean and prevent error messages and warnings.

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Contributed by mukeshmb — 6 months ago
If you want to get the user id from user loginname.
```
$user = get_user_by('login','loginname');
if($user)
{
   echo $user-&gt;ID;
}
```
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Contributed by zackcarlson — 7 months ago
```
get_user_by('user_login', $user_login)
```
is case sensitive. Which means
```
get_user_by('user_login', "UserName")
```
would not match any users with like
```
"username"
```
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