the_content – Hook | Developer.WordPress.org

Filters the post content.

Parameters

$contentstring: Content of the current post.

More Information

This filter is used to filter the content of a post after it is retrieved from the database and before it is printed to the screen.

When using this filter it’s important to check if you’re filtering the content in the main query with the conditionals is_main_query() and in_the_loop(). The main post query can be thought of as the primary post loop that displays the main content for a post, page or archive. Without these conditionals you could unintentionally be filtering the content for custom loops in sidebars, footers, or elsewhere.

add_filter( 'the_content', 'filter_the_content_in_the_main_loop', 1 );

function filter_the_content_in_the_main_loop( $content ) {

// Check if we're inside the main loop in a single Post.
if ( is_singular() && in_the_loop() && is_main_query() ) {
return $content . esc_html__( 'I’m filtering the content inside the main loop', 'wporg');
}

return $content;
}

Source

$content = apply_filters( 'the_content', $content );

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Used by	Description
insert_hooked_blocks_into_rest_response()`wp-includes/blocks.php`	Hooks into the REST API response for the core/navigation block and adds the first and last inner blocks.
WP_REST_Revisions_Controller::prepare_item_for_response()`wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-revisions-controller.php`	Prepares the revision for the REST response.
WP_REST_Attachments_Controller::prepare_item_for_response()`wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-attachments-controller.php`	Prepares a single attachment output for response.
WP_REST_Posts_Controller::prepare_item_for_response()`wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-posts-controller.php`	Prepares a single post output for response.
wp_trim_excerpt()`wp-includes/formatting.php`	Generates an excerpt from the content, if needed.
get_the_content_feed()`wp-includes/feed.php`	Retrieves the post content for feeds.
the_content()`wp-includes/post-template.php`	Displays the post content.
do_trackbacks()`wp-includes/comment.php`	Performs trackbacks.

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Changelog

Version	Description
0.71	Introduced.

User Contributed Notes

Skip to note 11 content

Benjamin Intal 9 years ago

You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 6You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note

Note that the_content filter isn’t used when get_the_content() function is called.

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adiant 8 years ago

You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 6You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note

You can choose whether $content will have Shortcodes processed before or after your the_content function has executed by setting the Priority in add_filter. The default (10) will process Shortcodes after you have returned $content at the end of your Filter function. A large figure, such as 99, will already have processed Shortcodes before your Filter function is passed $content.

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Barrett Golding 7 years ago

Example

/* Add a paragraph only to Pages. */
function my_added_page_content ( $content ) {
    if ( is_page() ) {
        return $content . '<p>Your content added to all pages (not posts).</p>';
    }

    return $content;
}
add_filter( 'the_content', 'my_added_page_content');

SeanM88 7 years ago

Consolidate multiple string replacement filters
String replacements are a common reason for filtering the_content and with PHP7 you can now consolidate multiple callback functions using preg_replace_callback_array(); if it makes sense to.

Example:

add_filter( 'the_content', 'multiple_string_replacements');
function multiple_string_replacements ( $content ) {
	if ( is_single() && in_the_loop() && is_main_query() ) {
		return preg_replace_callback_array([
			// 1. Removes WordPress injected <p> tags surrounding images in post content.
			'/<p>\s*(<a .*>)?\s*(<img .* \/>)\s*(<\/a>)?\s*<\/p>/iU' => function ( &$matches ) {
				return $matches[1] . $matches[2] . $matches[3];
			},
			// 2. Adds custom data-attribute to <p> tags providing a paragraph id number.
			'|<p>|' => function ( &$matches ) {
				static $i = 1;
				return sprintf( '<p data-p-id="%d">', $i++ );
			},
		], $content );
	}
	return $content;
}

Skip to note 15 content

arena 6 years ago

You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 1You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note

the info at the bottom of the hook is wrong for most of the hooks :

Used by 7 functions | Uses 0 functions (At least it could be 0 function … ah ah ah !)

HERE is what i have for WP 5.1 :
* (7 is right, 0 is wrong)
* and i am not counting apply_filters_ref_array (happily there is no for “the_content” )

apply_filter
the_content comment.php 2656
the_content feed.php 191
the_content formatting.php 3692
the_content post-template.php 247
the_content class-wp-rest-attachments-controller.php 310
the_content class-wp-rest-posts-controller.php 1532
the_content class-wp-rest-revisions-controller.php 545
add_filter
the_content blocks.php 269
the_content blocks.php 296
the_content class-wp-embed.php 32
the_content class-wp-embed.php 39
the_content default-filters.php 142
the_content default-filters.php 172
the_content default-filters.php 173
the_content default-filters.php 174
the_content default-filters.php 175
the_content default-filters.php 176
the_content default-filters.php 177
the_content default-filters.php 178
the_content default-filters.php 519

There should be an indication of the WP version.

my doc (WP 5.1) is available here (https://blog.mailpress.org/hooks/wordpress-5-1/) !

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dch2018 4 years ago

This is also a good hook to use if you want to display custom fields from a plugin (including ACF fields).

The following example is from Jeff Starr’s plugins course.

// display all custom fields for each post
function wpdocs_display_all_custom_fields( $content ) {
    $custom_fields = 'Custom Fields';
    $all_custom_fields = get_post_custom();

    foreach ( $all_custom_fields as $key => $array ) {
        foreach ( $array as $value ) {
            if ( '_' !== substr( $key, 0, 1 ) ) {
                $custom_fields .= ''. $key .' =&gt; '. $value .'';
            }
        }
    }

    return $content . $custom_fields;
}
add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpdocs_display_all_custom_fields' );

Muhammad Ayoub 4 years ago

Using the example to add classes to p tag & h2 tag.

<?php
function wpdocs_replace_content( $text_content ) {
	if ( is_page() ) {
		$text = array(
			'<p>' => '<p class="text-danger">',
			'<h2>' => '<h2 class="h2">',
		);

		$text_content = str_ireplace( array_keys( $text ), $text, $text_content );
	}

	return $text_content;
}
add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpdocs_replace_content' );
?>

Chigozie Orunta 3 years ago

A useful hook to filter out vulgar words from your site and keep things nice and tidy for your site visitors.

add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpdocs_filter_vulgar_words' );

function wpdocs_filter_vulgar_words( $content ) {
	$vulgar_words = array( $vulgar_word1, $vulgar_word2, $vulgar_word3, $vulgar_word4 );

	foreach ( $vulgar_words as $word ) {
		$hashed_word = substr( $word, 0, 1 ) . str_repeat( '*', strlen( $word ) - 1 );
		$content = str_replace( $word, $hashed_word, $content );
	}

	return $content;
}

Skip to note 19 content

trebitzki 5 years ago

You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: -1You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
The usage example is misleading. Unless you’re not interested in pages, it should be
```
if ( ( is_single() || is_page() ) && in_the_loop() && is_main_query() ) {
...
}
```
You should also add a sufficiently high priority to the filter to hook on the_content before rendering happens:
```
add_filter( 'the_content', 'filter_the_content_in_the_main_loop', -1 );

function filter_the_content_in_the_main_loop( $content ) {
    // Check if we're inside the main loop in a post or page.
    if ( ( is_single() || is_page() ) && in_the_loop() && is_main_query() ) {
        return $content . esc_html__("I'm filtering the content inside the main loop", "my-textdomain");
    }
    return $content;
}
```
This should go in functions.php.
It took me half a day to figure out why my filter was doing nothing.
- Thanks, the example was edited accordingly.
  
  Jb Audras 5 years ago
- The usage example is NOT misleading. If condition is checking for is_singular() which is true for post, page, custom post type or attachment (doc). Your suggestion to use (is_single() || is_page() ) instead of is_singular() is not optimal. To your second though about higher priority to the filer in order to be applied before page is rendered. I guess you had other callbacks bind to ‘the_content’ hook with higher priority than yours (probably, you had a default 10) which overwrote your changes and it seemed to you that the page was rendered before your filter was applied, which again is a wrong perception of what ‘the_content’ hook is doing. All what it does is written on the top of this page: “This filter is used to filter the content of a post after it is retrieved from the database and before it is printed to the screen.” There is no way how this filter can be applied after the page is rendered.
  
  fylh 2 years ago
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renanbessa 4 years ago

-1

Using the example below verifies that if the ALT attribute of any image inserted in the content is empty, get the file name.

function wpdocs_replaceALT( $content ) {

	if ( is_single() && in_the_loop() && is_main_query() ) {

		libxml_use_internal_errors( true );

		$post = new DOMDocument();
		$post->loadHTML( $content );

		$images = $post->getElementsByTagName( 'img' );

		foreach ( $images as $image ) {

			if ( empty( $image->getAttribute( 'alt' ) ) ) {

				$src = $image->getAttribute( 'src' );
				$alt = pathinfo( $src, PATHINFO_FILENAME );

				$image->setAttribute( 'alt', $alt );

			}
		}

		$content = $post->saveHTML();

		return $content;
	}
}
add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpdocs_replaceALT' );

The note will not work with content with accent.. there is a problem with encoding.. should use :
```
$post->loadHTML( '<?xml encoding="utf-8" ?>' . $content );
```
keusta 4 years ago

apply_filters( ‘the_content’, string $content )

In this article

Parameters

More Information

Usage

Source

Changelog

User Contributed Notes

apply_filters( ‘the_content’, string $content )

In this article

Parameters

More Information

Usage

Source

Related

Changelog

User Contributed Notes