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

---

# wp_sidebar_description( string $id ): string|void

## In this article

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

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

Retrieves description for a sidebar.

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

When registering sidebars a ‘description’ parameter can be included that describes
the sidebar for display on the widget administration panel.

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

 `$id`stringrequired

sidebar ID.

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

 string|void Sidebar description, if available.

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

    ```php
    function wp_sidebar_description( $id ) {
    	if ( ! is_scalar( $id ) ) {
    		return;
    	}

    	global $wp_registered_sidebars;

    	if ( isset( $wp_registered_sidebars[ $id ]['description'] ) ) {
    		return wp_kses( $wp_registered_sidebars[ $id ]['description'], 'sidebar_description' );
    	}
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/widgets.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.0/src/wp-includes/widgets.php#L476)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.0/src/wp-includes/widgets.php#L476-L486)

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

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

Filters text content and strips out disallowed HTML.

  |

| Used by | Description | 
| [WP_REST_Sidebars_Controller::prepare_item_for_response()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_sidebars_controller/prepare_item_for_response/)`wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-sidebars-controller.php` |

Prepares a single sidebar output for response.

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

Show the widgets and their settings for a sidebar.

  |

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

| Version | Description | 
| [2.9.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.9.0/) | Introduced. |

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