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get_category_by_slug( string $slug )

Retrieves a category object by category slug.

Parameters

$slug

(string) (Required) The category slug.

Return

(object|false) Category data object on success, false if not found.

More Information

Same is achieved by:
get_term_by('slug', $slug, 'category');

Source

File: wp-includes/category.php 

function get_category_by_slug( $slug ) {
	$category = get_term_by( 'slug', $slug, 'category' );

	if ( $category ) {
		_make_cat_compat( $category );
	}

	return $category;
}

Uses

Uses Description
wp-includes/category.php: _make_cat_compat()

Updates category structure to old pre-2.3 from new taxonomy structure.
wp-includes/taxonomy.php: get_term_by()

Get all Term data from database by Term field and data.

Changelog

Version Description
2.3.0 Introduced.

© 2003–2019 WordPress Foundation
Licensed under the GNU GPLv2+ License.
https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_category_by_slug