Creates term and taxonomy relationships.

Description

Relates an object (post, link, etc.) to a term and taxonomy type. Creates the term and taxonomy relationship if it doesn’t already exist. Creates a term if it doesn’t exist (using the slug).

A relationship means that the term is grouped in or belongs to the taxonomy.
A term has no meaning until it is given context by defining which taxonomy it exists under.

Parameters

$object_idintrequired

The object to relate to.

$termsstring|int|arrayrequired

A single term slug, single term ID, or array of either term slugs or IDs.
Will replace all existing related terms in this taxonomy. Passing an empty array will remove all related terms.

$taxonomystringrequired

The context in which to relate the term to the object.

$appendbooloptional

If false will delete difference of terms.

Default:false

Return

More Information

For parameter $terms, integers are interpreted as tag IDs. Some functions may return term_ids as strings which will be interpreted as slugs consisting of numeric characters.

For Return:

• (array) An array of the terms ( as term_taxonomy_ids ! ) affected if successful
• (array) An empty array if the $terms argument was NULL or empty – successmessage for the removing of the term
• (WP_Error) The WordPress Error object on invalid taxonomy (‘invalid_taxonomy’).
• (string) The first offending term if a term given in the $terms parameter is named incorrectly. (Invalid term ids are accepted and inserted).

This function does not check if there is a relationship between the object (=post type) and the taxonomy (like post_tag, category or custom taxonomy). Because of that, any existing term will be paired with the object, whether or not there is a connection between the object and the taxonomy (of this particular term)!! ( Further information in german)

Perhaps the wp_set_post_terms() is a more useful function, since it checks the values​​, converting taxonomies separated by commas and validating hierarchical terms in integers.

It may be confusing but the returned array consists of term_taxonomy_ids instead of term_ids.

Source

function wp_set_object_terms( $object_id, $terms, $taxonomy, $append = false ) {
	global $wpdb;

	$object_id = (int) $object_id;

	if ( ! taxonomy_exists( $taxonomy ) ) {
		return new WP_Error( 'invalid_taxonomy', __( 'Invalid taxonomy.' ) );
	}

	if ( empty( $terms ) ) {
		$terms = array();
	} elseif ( ! is_array( $terms ) ) {
		$terms = array( $terms );
	}

	if ( ! $append ) {
		$old_tt_ids = wp_get_object_terms(
			$object_id,
			$taxonomy,
			array(
				'fields'                 => 'tt_ids',
				'orderby'                => 'none',
				'update_term_meta_cache' => false,
			)
		);
	} else {
		$old_tt_ids = array();
	}

	$tt_ids     = array();
	$new_tt_ids = array();

	foreach ( (array) $terms as $term ) {
		if ( '' === trim( $term ) ) {
			continue;
		}

		$term_info = term_exists( $term, $taxonomy );

		if ( ! $term_info ) {
			// Skip if a non-existent term ID is passed.
			if ( is_int( $term ) ) {
				continue;
			}

			$term_info = wp_insert_term( $term, $taxonomy );
		}

		if ( is_wp_error( $term_info ) ) {
			return $term_info;
		}

		$tt_id    = $term_info['term_taxonomy_id'];
		$tt_ids[] = $tt_id;

		if ( $wpdb->get_var( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT term_taxonomy_id FROM $wpdb->term_relationships WHERE object_id = %d AND term_taxonomy_id = %d", $object_id, $tt_id ) ) ) {
			continue;
		}

		/**
		 * Fires immediately before an object-term relationship is added.
		 *
		 * @since 2.9.0
		 * @since 4.7.0 Added the `$taxonomy` parameter.
		 *
		 * @param int    $object_id Object ID.
		 * @param int    $tt_id     Term taxonomy ID.
		 * @param string $taxonomy  Taxonomy slug.
		 */
		do_action( 'add_term_relationship', $object_id, $tt_id, $taxonomy );

		$wpdb->insert(
			$wpdb->term_relationships,
			array(
				'object_id'        => $object_id,
				'term_taxonomy_id' => $tt_id,
			)
		);

		/**
		 * Fires immediately after an object-term relationship is added.
		 *
		 * @since 2.9.0
		 * @since 4.7.0 Added the `$taxonomy` parameter.
		 *
		 * @param int    $object_id Object ID.
		 * @param int    $tt_id     Term taxonomy ID.
		 * @param string $taxonomy  Taxonomy slug.
		 */
		do_action( 'added_term_relationship', $object_id, $tt_id, $taxonomy );

		$new_tt_ids[] = $tt_id;
	}

	if ( $new_tt_ids ) {
		wp_update_term_count( $new_tt_ids, $taxonomy );
	}

	if ( ! $append ) {
		$delete_tt_ids = array_diff( $old_tt_ids, $tt_ids );

		if ( $delete_tt_ids ) {
			$in_delete_tt_ids = "'" . implode( "', '", $delete_tt_ids ) . "'";
			$delete_term_ids  = $wpdb->get_col( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT tt.term_id FROM $wpdb->term_taxonomy AS tt WHERE tt.taxonomy = %s AND tt.term_taxonomy_id IN ($in_delete_tt_ids)", $taxonomy ) );
			$delete_term_ids  = array_map( 'intval', $delete_term_ids );

			$remove = wp_remove_object_terms( $object_id, $delete_term_ids, $taxonomy );
			if ( is_wp_error( $remove ) ) {
				return $remove;
			}
		}
	}

	$t = get_taxonomy( $taxonomy );

	if ( ! $append && isset( $t->sort ) && $t->sort ) {
		$values     = array();
		$term_order = 0;

		$final_tt_ids = wp_get_object_terms(
			$object_id,
			$taxonomy,
			array(
				'fields'                 => 'tt_ids',
				'update_term_meta_cache' => false,
			)
		);

		foreach ( $tt_ids as $tt_id ) {
			if ( in_array( (int) $tt_id, $final_tt_ids, true ) ) {
				$values[] = $wpdb->prepare( '(%d, %d, %d)', $object_id, $tt_id, ++$term_order );
			}
		}

		if ( $values ) {
			if ( false === $wpdb->query( "INSERT INTO $wpdb->term_relationships (object_id, term_taxonomy_id, term_order) VALUES " . implode( ',', $values ) . ' ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE term_order = VALUES(term_order)' ) ) {
				return new WP_Error( 'db_insert_error', __( 'Could not insert term relationship into the database.' ), $wpdb->last_error );
			}
		}
	}

	wp_cache_delete( $object_id, $taxonomy . '_relationships' );
	wp_cache_set_terms_last_changed();

	/**
	 * Fires after an object's terms have been set.
	 *
	 * @since 2.8.0
	 *
	 * @param int    $object_id  Object ID.
	 * @param array  $terms      An array of object term IDs or slugs.
	 * @param array  $tt_ids     An array of term taxonomy IDs.
	 * @param string $taxonomy   Taxonomy slug.
	 * @param bool   $append     Whether to append new terms to the old terms.
	 * @param array  $old_tt_ids Old array of term taxonomy IDs.
	 */
	do_action( 'set_object_terms', $object_id, $terms, $tt_ids, $taxonomy, $append, $old_tt_ids );

	return $tt_ids;
}

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Hooks

do_action( ‘added_term_relationship’, int $object_id, int $tt_id, string $taxonomy )

Fires immediately after an object-term relationship is added.

do_action( ‘add_term_relationship’, int $object_id, int $tt_id, string $taxonomy )

Fires immediately before an object-term relationship is added.

do_action( ‘set_object_terms’, int $object_id, array $terms, array $tt_ids, string $taxonomy, bool $append, array $old_tt_ids )

Fires after an object’s terms have been set.

Changelog