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

---

# set_current_user( int|null $id, string $name ): 󠀁[WP_User](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/)󠁿

## In this article

 * [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/set_current_user/?output_format=md#description)
    - [See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/set_current_user/?output_format=md#see-also)
 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/set_current_user/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/set_current_user/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/set_current_user/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/set_current_user/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/set_current_user/?output_format=md#changelog)

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

This function has been deprecated since 3.0.0. Use [wp_set_current_user()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_set_current_user/)
instead.

Changes the current user by ID or name.

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

Set $id to null and specify a name if you do not know a user’s ID.

### 󠀁[See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/set_current_user/?output_format=md#see-also)󠁿

 * [wp_set_current_user()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_set_current_user/)

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

 `$id`int|nullrequired

User ID.

`$name`stringoptional

The user’s username

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

 [WP_User](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/) returns [wp_set_current_user()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_set_current_user/)

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

    ```php
    function set_current_user($id, $name = '') {
    	_deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.0.0', 'wp_set_current_user()' );
    	return wp_set_current_user($id, $name);
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/pluggable-deprecated.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/pluggable-deprecated.php#L32)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/pluggable-deprecated.php#L32-L35)

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

| Uses | Description | 
| [wp_set_current_user()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_set_current_user/)`wp-includes/pluggable.php` |

Changes the current user by ID or name.

  | 
| [_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.

  |

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

| Version | Description | 
| [3.0.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/3.0.0/) | Deprecated. Use [wp_set_current_user()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_set_current_user/)  | 
| [2.0.1](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.0.1/) | Introduced. |

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