is_category() – Function | Developer.WordPress.org

Determines whether the query is for an existing category archive page.

Description

If the $category parameter is specified, this function will additionally check if the query is for one of the categories specified.

For more information on this and similar theme functions, check out the Conditional Tags article in the Theme Developer Handbook.

Parameters

$categoryint|string|int[]|string[]optional: Category ID, name, slug, or array of such to check against.
Default:''

Return

bool Whether the query is for an existing category archive page.

More Information

See also is_archive() and Category Templates.
For Custom Taxonomies use is_tax()

Source

function is_category( $category = '' ) {
	global $wp_query;

	if ( ! isset( $wp_query ) ) {
		_doing_it_wrong( __FUNCTION__, __( 'Conditional query tags do not work before the query is run. Before then, they always return false.' ), '3.1.0' );
		return false;
	}

	return $wp_query->is_category( $category );
}

View all references View on Trac View on GitHub

Uses	Description
WP_Query::is_category()`wp-includes/class-wp-query.php`	Determines whether the query is for an existing category archive page.
_doing_it_wrong()`wp-includes/functions.php`	Marks something as being incorrectly called.

Used by	Description
rest_get_queried_resource_route()`wp-includes/rest-api.php`	Gets the REST route for the currently queried object.
wp_get_document_title()`wp-includes/general-template.php`	Returns document title for the current page.
get_the_archive_title()`wp-includes/general-template.php`	Retrieves the archive title based on the queried object.
term_description()`wp-includes/category-template.php`	Retrieves term description.
wp_dropdown_categories()`wp-includes/category-template.php`	Displays or retrieves the HTML dropdown list of categories.
wp_list_categories()`wp-includes/category-template.php`	Displays or retrieves the HTML list of categories.
feed_links_extra()`wp-includes/general-template.php`	Displays the links to the extra feeds such as category feeds.
wp_title()`wp-includes/general-template.php`	Displays or retrieves page title for all areas of blog.
single_term_title()`wp-includes/general-template.php`	Displays or retrieves page title for taxonomy term archive.
WP::handle_404()`wp-includes/class-wp.php`	Set the Headers for 404, if nothing is found for requested URL.
get_body_class()`wp-includes/post-template.php`	Retrieves an array of the class names for the body element.
redirect_canonical()`wp-includes/canonical.php`	Redirects incoming links to the proper URL based on the site url.

Show 7 more Show less

Changelog

Version	Description
1.5.0	Introduced.

User Contributed Notes

Codex 10 years ago

Examples

is_category();
// When any Category archive page is being displayed.

is_category( '9' );
// When the archive page for Category 9 is being displayed.

is_category( 'Stinky Cheeses' );
// When the archive page for the Category with Name "Stinky Cheeses" is being displayed.

is_category( 'blue-cheese' );
// When the archive page for the Category with Category Slug "blue-cheese" is being displayed.

is_category( array( 9, 'blue-cheese', 'Stinky Cheeses' ) );
// Returns true when the category of posts being displayed is either term_ID 9,
// or slug "blue-cheese", or name "Stinky Cheeses".
// Note: the array ability was added in version 2.5.

is_category( int|string|int[]|string[] $category = '' ): bool

In this article