WordPress: Get taxonomy hierarchy, including children

<?php
/**
 * Recursively get taxonomy and its children
 *
 * @param string $taxonomy
 * @param int $parent - parent term id
 * @return array
 */
function get_taxonomy_hierarchy( $taxonomy, $parent = 0 ) {
	// only 1 taxonomy
	$taxonomy = is_array( $taxonomy ) ? array_shift( $taxonomy ) : $taxonomy;
	// get all direct descendants of the $parent
	$terms = get_terms( $taxonomy, array( 'parent' => $parent ) );
	// prepare a new array.  these are the children of $parent
	// we'll ultimately copy all the $terms into this new array, but only after they
	// find their own children
	$children = array();
	// go through all the direct descendants of $parent, and gather their children
	foreach ( $terms as $term ){
		// recurse to get the direct descendants of "this" term
		$term->children = get_taxonomy_hierarchy( $taxonomy, $term->term_id );
		// add the term to our new array
		$children[ $term->term_id ] = $term;
	}
	// send the results back to the caller
	return $children;
}
/**
 * Recursively get all taxonomies as complete hierarchies
 *
 * @param $taxonomies array of taxonomy slugs
 * @param $parent int - Starting parent term id
 *
 * @return array
 */
function get_taxonomy_hierarchy_multiple( $taxonomies, $parent = 0 ) {
	if ( ! is_array( $taxonomies )  ) {
		$taxonomies = array( $taxonomies );
	}
	$results = array();
	foreach( $taxonomies as $taxonomy ){
		$terms = get_taxonomy_hierarchy( $taxonomy, $parent );
		if ( $terms ) {
			$results[ $taxonomy ] = $terms;
		}
	}
	return $results;
}

 

Usage:

$hierarchies = get_taxonomy_hierarchy_multiple( array( 'category', 'post_tag' ) );
// or for a single taxonomy
$hierarchy = get_taxonomy_hierarchy( 'category' ); 


What’s going on?


During the first execution, we use get_terms() to gather all terms that do not have any parents ( parent = 0 ). Then, we loop through those terms, and look for terms whose parent is “this” term. Every time we loop through a set of terms, we look for children that belong to each term. Ultimately, we return an array of terms with nested children terms within the children property.

							

		


		

								

	




		
	
	



	
			

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