get_category_template()

Retrieve path of category template in current or parent template.

Description

The hierarchy for this template looks like:

  1. category-{slug}.php
  2. category-{id}.php
  3. category.php

An example of this is:

  1. category-news.php
  2. category-2.php
  3. category.php

The template hierarchy and template path are filterable via the ‘$type_template_hierarchy’ and ‘$type_template’ dynamic hooks, where $type is ‘category’.

See also

Return

(string) Full path to category template file.

Source

File: wp-includes/template.php 

function get_category_template() {
	$category = get_queried_object();

	$templates = array();

	if ( ! empty( $category->slug ) ) {

		$slug_decoded = urldecode( $category->slug );
		if ( $slug_decoded !== $category->slug ) {
			$templates[] = "category-{$slug_decoded}.php";
		}

		$templates[] = "category-{$category->slug}.php";
		$templates[] = "category-{$category->term_id}.php";
	}
	$templates[] = 'category.php';

	return get_query_template( 'category', $templates );
}

Changelog

Version Description
4.7.0 The decoded form of category-{slug}.php was added to the top of the template hierarchy when the category slug contains multibyte characters.
1.5.0 Introduced.

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Licensed under the GNU GPLv2+ License.
https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_category_template