Why do some core functions get wp_ while others do not? What’s the rule?

This makes not that impressive answer, but – none.

get_ is suffix usually means function returns something, the_ that function echoes something.

wp_ doesn’t carry technical meaning and inconsistency in naming is from many developers participating and lack of movement to unify (moving forward is considered more important than major cleanups of older stuff to make it neat).

Related Posts:

  1. What’s the difference between get_home_path() and ABSPATH?
  2. Modifying WordPress core files
  3. $GLOBALS array for WordPress
  4. What are custom_css and customize_changeset used for?
  5. IP address whitelist to update WordPress core and plugins
  6. What are some reasons why you should not hack WordPress core files?
  7. How To/What triggers a WordPress auto update?
  8. Rewriting a core function?
  9. What is the purpose of this line of code in wp_trim_excerpt? [closed]
  10. What CSS minifier does WP core use?
  11. What’s $GLOBALS[‘wp_settings’][‘media’][’embeds’]?
  12. Function to change a label (Username) in a core WordPress File (wp-includes/general-template.php)
  13. How do I set a custom WordPress update repository?
  14. WordPress classes explained
  15. No longer able to attach S3 bucket files to emails being sent by WordPress due to PHPMailer security update
  16. What problems maybe happen if I remove “wp-” prefix from wordpress folders and files?
  17. WP Core: Where are terms populated for the admin edit screen?
  18. What is the WP_Internal_Pointers core class?
  19. How to contribute to WordPress Core using Tortoise SVN?
  20. Create a patch using TortoiseSVN
  21. Loading WP core Thickbox through frontend
  22. Isn’t requiring a file before it’s loaded by WordPress itself a symptom of bad code? [closed]
  23. How to find out where the data.model is?
  24. Why WordPress Core Functions Not Using function_exists()?
  25. how does the rendering works?
  26. When is the wp-mail.php in the WP root requested?
  27. Is the information returned by get_bloginfo( ‘version’ ) always the same as the one in version.php?
  28. How to add a forward slash to the end of wordpress home?
  29. Using native wp image support instead of timthumb
  30. Should /wp-includes/js/* folder be blocked in robots.txt file for a WordPress website?
  31. Can mediaelement-and-play core JS be dequeued?
  32. WordPress auto update for core but use local package
  33. WordPress 4.8 – Can’t find variable: wp
  34. What is responsible for triggering “robots-template.php” file or “wp_robots_noindex()” core function out of it?
  35. Add image or video tags to WP Sitemap
  36. Where can I find the definitive list of core blocks in html form
  37. When do we use wp_slash?
  38. Explanation of update_post_(meta/term)_cache
  39. Looking for WordPress System Diagrams
  40. Clarification on filters and hooks
  41. is it possible to replace the use of gd_lib with imagick or ImageMagick?
  42. Passing a hardcoded page/post ID into `get_post`
  43. HowTo: Add Class to Sidebar Widget List-Items
  44. How would I compare and remove hacks to core?
  45. How Does WordPress Uninclude/Deactivate A Plugin?
  46. Changing subdir multisite install to subdir core directory structure
  47. How to disable `SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS` [duplicate]
  48. Why are double-periods (“..”) invalid in a WordPress image filename?
  49. Does anyone have a visual breakdown of core hooks and when they are fired?
  50. Loading template files from a subfolder in my theme?
  51. How to listen to color changes on the color picker?
  52. How do I fix this error: Warning: invalid argument supplied for foreach()?
  53. Change Password Hint
  54. How to remove X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN” from WordPress?
  55. Why does my hand-written plugin installer fail to find `request_filesystem_credentials`?
  56. Why use while over if in single wordpress posts?
  57. Headers already sent – WordPress core
  58. How long do users stay logged in if they DON’T check remember me?
  59. Changing a WordPress core function without hacking core
  60. How can i know when i can execute what functions of wordpress?
  61. remove rel=next on home page but not others
  62. Render Selected Categories in Admin Edit Post Screen differently
  63. Hook before & after plugin / core update
  64. WP_Remote_Get Not working
  65. How to Dequeue All WordPress Assets
  66. Changing the comments link produced by the get_comments_link() and get_comments_pagenum_link() functions
  67. In what part of the WordPress core does the users table and usermeta table get joined?
  68. How to overwrite / extent wordpress function is_email
  69. Check for security updates
  70. How to override default WordPress core language file
  71. Weird behavior of Dashboard, must be core files
  72. Changing WordPress core without hacking core
  73. Least expensive way to get table prefix in multisite installation
  74. Are all hooks/functions tied to Kses meant for sanitization?
  75. Is the root index.php file part of the Core?
  76. Timezone is wrong when picking city (Copenhagen)
  77. How to edit the Tags within the image file URLs?
  78. Location of core code for database connection and get_header
  79. Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 9967617 bytes) in …\wp-includes\functions.php
  80. How to get theme’s info from wordpress.org/themes using api.wordpress.org?
  81. Who updates the wp-admin/core file?
  82. getting notifications about updates only in the “core” page
  83. Where’s the explanation of the TinyMCE’s vars in the WP core?
  84. Usage of var keyword in the core
  85. How to remove a settings section from the Theme Customization API preview pane?
  86. Does WordPress do any internal caching if no plugin installed?
  87. wordpress wp-admin/includes/shema.php file has been modify alone
  88. wp_insert_post always returns 0 on one site, extensive testing done, can’t get to the bottom
  89. WP-CLI: detect altered core files and restore them automatically
  90. wp-cli core install –skip-email and –skip-config flags not working on MAMP unknown parameter
  91. wp-cli core install unknown: fatal: file /etc/postfix/main.cf: parameter mail_owner: user postfix has same user ID as _postfix
  92. Why does DROP TABLE-ing the `wp_options` reset my user session?
  93. How does WordPress get the upgrade URL?
  94. WordPress core update fails – no issues with plugin updates
  95. After a while attachment meta data is missing “sizes” data
  96. Remote database access on another wordpress site’s custom post type
  97. Critical Error when editing menu
  98. change div text and link for logged in users
  99. WPML is blocking WP core update
  100. WordPress Includes mejs 404 error

Leave a Comment