get_category_count()

September 21st, 2008

get_category_count() is a WordPress function to count the posts within a category. It can probably be written in many different ways.
Here is my version of the function and should be placed in functions.php in your theme:

function wt_get_category_count($input = '') {
	global $wpdb;
	if($input == '')
	{
		$category = get_the_category();
		return $category[0]->category_count;
	}
	elseif(is_numeric($input))
	{
		$SQL = "SELECT $wpdb->term_taxonomy.count FROM $wpdb->terms, $wpdb->term_taxonomy WHERE $wpdb->terms.term_id=$wpdb->term_taxonomy.term_id AND $wpdb->term_taxonomy.term_id=$input";
		return $wpdb->get_var($SQL);
	}
	else
	{
		$SQL = "SELECT $wpdb->term_taxonomy.count FROM $wpdb->terms, $wpdb->term_taxonomy WHERE $wpdb->terms.term_id=$wpdb->term_taxonomy.term_id AND $wpdb->terms.slug='$input'";
		return $wpdb->get_var($SQL);
	}
}

It can be called in three different ways…

1. Just call the function within The Loop and it will return the count of the first category within the current post.

<?php echo wt_get_category_count(); ?>

2. Use the function with an ID and it will return the count of the first category within the post ID.

<?php echo wt_get_category_count(1); ?>

3. Use the function with a slug / nicename and it will return the count of the first category within the post slug / nicename.

<?php echo wt_get_category_count('hello-world'); ?>

To get all new functions/template tags, install my plugin WP Extra Template Tags.

Replys

2012-03-15 - Livecoupon
It is recommend that use the second one to fetch category count.
2012-03-06 - bogdan
is posibile more categori/tags ? … AND $wpdb->terms.slug IN ($input)”;
2012-02-16 - ralf
Hi,
I have the problem with more then 9 articles/category. This function returns only one digit!?
Could anybody help me to solve this problem?
Many thanks in advance!
Ralf
2012-01-30 - Bo
Thanks! It worked just the way I was looking for.
2012-01-24 - Hugo
All I can say is thanks!
2011-08-18 - Tumbleweed
Hello, I am having trouble getting your syntax to work in my functions.php template.

So, after I place the above code within the functions.php Loop, where do I place the calling script:
At the end of the Loop in the functions.php template?

And, will this give me a count of all posts within each category?

Thanks,
Tumbleweed
2011-07-31 - sardinien strand
Nice work, but there is one thing that does not work. It does not display a number or a parent category, when child categories have posts -> it just shows “0″ posts for parent category.
2011-05-26 - Egzon
Great tip. Thanks
2011-03-21 - Krassi
Very nice function. Thank you very much.
2011-03-02 - Paul
This is a great function. Thank you. Is it possible to make this function count all posts in the subcategories of the current category?
2010-06-29 - Nathan
Hi,

I found this to be of great help!

Thanks
Nathan
2009-12-25 - mikeamc
Very nice tip, but when a category is empty the function do not return the zero “0″. Is there a way to resolve that ? thanks a lot
2009-08-05 - Dominic Desbiens
Very nice function. Thank you very much. Is it count all posts in sub-cats when you enter a main cat? (parent cat)
2009-03-02 - Sam Davis
I have a website dedicated to Magento and I use this feature on my home page.

However, is it possible to use this function for Link Categories (ie: The number of Blogroll links in a particular cat)?

Thanks.