Understanding Hierarchical Terms

Oct 13, 2025 by wbrum.org 131 views

Introduction

In WordPress, terms are used to categorize and tag posts. When working with hierarchical terms, it's often necessary to retrieve the count of posts for a parent term and its child terms. However, the pad_count parameter in WordPress's wp_term_taxonomy table doesn't seem to have the desired effect. In this article, we'll explore how to get the count of posts for a parent term and its child terms.

Understanding Hierarchical Terms

Hierarchical terms are a type of taxonomy in WordPress that allows for a parent-child relationship between terms. This means that a parent term can have multiple child terms, and each child term can have its own child terms. The following is an example of a hierarchical term structure:

Term 1
- Subterm 1.1
- Subterm 1.2
Term 2
- Subterm 2.1
- Subterm 2.2

Retrieving Post Count for Parent Term and Child Terms

To retrieve the post count for a parent term and its child terms, you can use the following code:

$term_id = 1; // Replace with the ID of the parent term
$taxonomy = 'category'; // Replace with the taxonomy name

$parent_term = get_term($term_id, $taxonomy);
$parent_term_count = $parent_term->count;

$child_terms = get_terms(array(
    'taxonomy' => $taxonomy,
    'parent' => $term_id,
    'hide_empty' => false,
));

$child_term_count = 0;
foreach ($child_terms as $child_term) {
    $child_term_count += $child_term->count;
}

$total_count = $parent_term_count + $child_term_count;

This code retrieves the parent term object using the get_term function, and then retrieves the child terms using the get_terms function. The hide_empty parameter is set to false to include terms with no posts. The foreach loop is used to iterate over the child terms and add their post counts to the total count.

Using `wp_term_taxonomy` Table

The wp_term_taxonomy table in WordPress stores information about terms and their relationships. You can use this table to retrieve the post count for a parent term and its child terms. However, as mentioned earlier, the pad_count parameter doesn't seem to have the desired effect.

To retrieve the post count for a parent term and its child terms using the wp_term_taxonomy table, you can use the following SQL query:

SELECT 
    tt.term_id,
    tt.parent,
    tt.count,
    tt.pad_count
FROM 
    wp_term_taxonomy tt
WHERE 
    tt.parent = 1; // Replace with the ID of the parent term

This query retrieves the term ID, parent ID, post count, and pad count for the parent term and its child terms.

Conclusion

Introduction

In our previous article, we explored how to retrieve the post count for a parent term and its child terms in WordPress. However, we received several questions from readers who were still unsure about how to implement this functionality. In this article, we'll answer some of the most frequently asked questions about retrieving post counts for parent terms and child terms.

Q: What is the difference between `pad_count` and `count` in the `wp_term_taxonomy` table?

A: The pad_count column in the wp_term_taxonomy table is used to store the post count for a term, including its child terms. However, this column is not always updated correctly, which is why we recommend using the get_term and get_terms functions to retrieve the post count for a parent term and its child terms.

Q: How do I retrieve the post count for a parent term and its child terms using the `get_terms` function?

A: To retrieve the post count for a parent term and its child terms using the get_terms function, you can use the following code:

$term_id = 1; // Replace with the ID of the parent term
$taxonomy = 'category'; // Replace with the taxonomy name

$parent_term = get_term($term_id, $taxonomy);
$parent_term_count = $parent_term->count;

$child_terms = get_terms(array(
    'taxonomy' => $taxonomy,
    'parent' => $term_id,
    'hide_empty' => false,
));

$child_term_count = 0;
foreach ($child_terms as $child_term) {
    $child_term_count += $child_term->count;
}

$total_count = $parent_term_count + $child_term_count;

Q: How do I retrieve the post count for a parent term and its child terms using a SQL query?

A: To retrieve the post count for a parent term and its child terms using a SQL query, you can use the following code:

SELECT 
    tt.term_id,
    tt.parent,
    tt.count,
    tt.pad_count
FROM 
    wp_term_taxonomy tt
WHERE 
    tt.parent = 1; // Replace with the ID of the parent term

This query retrieves the term ID, parent ID, post count, and pad count for the parent term and its child terms.

Q: What if I have a large number of terms and child terms? Will this code slow down my website?

A: The code we provided should not slow down your website, even with a large number of terms and child terms. However, if you have a very large number of terms and child terms, you may want to consider using a more efficient approach, such as using a caching plugin or optimizing your database.

Q: Can I use this code to retrieve the post count for a parent term and its child terms in a custom plugin?

A: Yes, you can use this code to retrieve the post count for a parent term and its child terms in a custom plugin. Simply copy and paste the code into your plugin file, and make sure to replace the term_id and taxonomy variables with the correct values for your plugin.

Conclusion

In this article, we've answered some of the most frequently asked questions about retrieving post counts for parent terms and child terms in WordPress. We've provided code examples and SQL queries to help you implement this functionality in your own plugins and themes.