Title: Parentless Categories Author: Scott Reilly Published: June 12, 2009 Last modified: April 21, 2025 --- Search plugins ![](https://ps.w.org/parentless-categories/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=835971) ![](https://ps.w.org/parentless-categories/assets/icon-128x128.png?rev=976009) # Parentless Categories By [Scott Reilly](https://profiles.wordpress.org/coffee2code/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/parentless-categories.2.3.1.zip) * [Details](https://co.wordpress.org/plugins/parentless-categories/#description) * [Reviews](https://co.wordpress.org/plugins/parentless-categories/#reviews) * [Installation](https://co.wordpress.org/plugins/parentless-categories/#installation) * [Development](https://co.wordpress.org/plugins/parentless-categories/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/parentless-categories/) ## Description This plugin provides a template tag which acts as a modified version of WordPress’s built-in template tag, `the_category()`. `the_category()` lists all categories directly assigned to the specified post. `c2c_parentless_categories()` lists those categories, except for categories that are parents to other assigned categories. For example, assume your category structure is hierarchical and looks like this: ``` Vegetables |-- Leafy | |-- Broccoli | |-- Bok Choy | |-- Celery |-- Fruiting | |-- Bell Pepper | |-- Cucumber | |-- Pumpkin |-- Podded | |-- Chickpea | |-- Lentil | |-- Soybean ``` If you directly assigned the categories “Fruiting”, “Cucumber”, and “Pumpkin” to a post, `c2c_parentless_categories()` would return a list that consists of: “Cucumber”, and “Pumpkin”. Notice that since “Fruiting” was a parent to a directly assigned category, it is not included in the list. By default, categories are listed as an HTML list. The first argument to the template tag allows you to define a custom separator, e.g. to have a simple comma-separated list of categories: ``. As with categories listed via `the_category()`, categories that are listed are presented as links to the respective category’s archive page. Example usage (based on preceding example): * `` Outputs something like: ``` ``` * `` Outputs something like: ``` Cucumber, Pumpkin ``` Links: [Plugin Homepage](https://coffee2code.com/wp-plugins/parentless-categories/) | [Plugin Directory Page](https://wordpress.org/plugins/parentless-categories/) | [GitHub](https://github.com/coffee2code/parentless-categories/) | [Author Homepage](https://coffee2code.com) ### Developer Documentation Developer documentation can be found in [DEVELOPER-DOCS.md](https://github.com/coffee2code/parentless-categories/blob/master/DEVELOPER-DOCS.md). That documentation covers the template tags and hooks provided by the plugin. As an overview, these are the template tags provided by the plugin: * `c2c_parentless_categories()` : Outputs the parentless categories. * `c2c_get_parentless_categories_list()` : Returns the list of parentless categories. * `c2c_get_parentless_categories()` : Returns the list of parentless categories for the specified post. These are the hooks provided by the plugin: * `c2c_parentless_categories` _(action)_, `c2c_get_parentless_categories_list`,` c2c_get_parentless_categories` _(filters)_ : Allows for an alternative approach to safely invoke each of the identically named functions in such a way that if the plugin were deactivated or deleted, then your calls to the functions won’t cause errors on your site. * `c2c_parentless_categories_list` _(filter)_ : Customizes the return value of the `c2c_parentless_categories_list()` function. * `c2c_get_parentless_categories_omit_ancestors` _(filter)_ : Customizes the function argument indicating if ancestor categories of all directly assigned categories( even if directly assigned themselves) should be omitted from the return list of categories. ## Installation 1. Install via the built-in WordPress plugin installer. Or install the plugin code inside the plugins directory for your site (typically `/wp-content/plugins/`). 2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ admin menu in WordPress 3. Optional: Add filters for ‘c2c_parentless_categories_list’ to filter parentless category listing 4. Use the template tag `` in a theme template somewhere inside “the loop” ## FAQ ### Why isn’t an assigned category for the post showing up in the `c2c_parentless_categories()` listing? If an assigned category is the parent for one or more other assigned categories for the post, then the category parent is not included in the listing. ### Does this plugin have unit tests? Yes. The tests are not packaged in the release .zip file or included in plugins. svn.wordpress.org, but can be found in the [plugin’s GitHub repository](https://github.com/coffee2code/parentless-categories/). ## Reviews There are no reviews for this plugin. ## Contributors & Developers “Parentless Categories” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ Scott Reilly ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/coffee2code/) [Translate “Parentless Categories” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/parentless-categories) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/parentless-categories/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/parentless-categories/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/parentless-categories/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/parentless-categories/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 2.3.1 (2025-04-20) * Change: Note compatibility through WP 6.8+ * Change: Note compatibility through PHP 8.3+ * Change: Update copyright date (2025) * Unit tests: - Change: Explicitly define return type for overridden method #### 2.3 (2024-08-28) Highlights: This minor release prevents translations from containing unintended markup, notes compatibility through WP 6.6+, removes unit tests from release packaging, and updates copyright date (2024). Details: * Change: Prevent translations from containing unintended markup * Change: Add missing inline comment for translators * Change: Note compatibility through WP 6.6+ * Change: Update copyright date (2024) * Change: Remove development and testing-related files from release packaging * New: Add `.gitignore` file * Unit tests: - Allow tests to run against current versions of WordPress - New: Add `composer.json` for PHPUnit Polyfill dependency - Hardening: Prevent direct web access to `bootstrap.php` - Change: In bootstrap, store path to plugin directory in a constant - New: Add tests for `c2c_parentless_categories()` - New: Add tests for function invocation filters - Change: Tweak some inline comment formatting #### 2.2.1 (2023-05-20) * Change: Note compatibility through WP 6.3+ * Change: Update copyright date (2023) _Full changelog is available in [CHANGELOG.md](https://github.com/coffee2code/parentless-categories/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md)._ ## Meta * Version **2.3.1** * Last updated **12 months ago** * Active installations **10+** * WordPress version ** 4.6 or higher ** * Tested up to **6.8.5** * Language * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/parentless-categories/) * Tags * [categories](https://co.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/categories/)[category](https://co.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/category/) [coffee2code](https://co.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/coffee2code/)[list](https://co.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/list/) [the_category](https://co.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/the_category/) * [Advanced View](https://co.wordpress.org/plugins/parentless-categories/advanced/) ## Ratings No reviews have been submitted yet. [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/parentless-categories/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/parentless-categories/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ Scott Reilly ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/coffee2code/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/parentless-categories/) ## Donate Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin? [ Donate to this plugin ](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6ARCFJ9TX3522)