How Do I Create a Search Function in WordPress?

Creating a search function in WordPress is relatively easy. First, you will need to create a function in your WordPress theme or plugin. Once you have created the function, you will need to add the following code to it:

/**

* The search function.

*

* This function allows users to search for content on the site.

* @param int $query The querystring to be searched.

* @return void

*/

function search_query( $query ) {

$query = trim( $query );

if ( !empty( $query ) ) {

$query = stripslashes( $query );

}

$query = array_unique( $query );

$q = wp_parse_query( $query );

if ( !empty( $q ) ) {

$results = $q->results;

else {

$results = array();

$q->is_searchable = true;

$q->query_vars = array( ‘q’ => $query );

If you want to limit the results returned by the search function, you can use the query_vars parameter. This parameter will allow you to specify which parameters should be used in the query. For example, you could specify that only posts with a certain category should be returned by the search function.

To do this, you would set the query_vars parameter to an associative array of key/value pairs. The key would be the category name, and the value would be the post ID.

The search_query function should be placed in the functions.php file of your WordPress theme or plugin. Once you have added the function, you can enable the search function by adding the following line to your WordPress theme or plugin’s header:

function search_query() {

If you would like to limit the number of results returned by the search function, you can use the is_searchable parameter. This parameter will determine if the search function is enabled.

If is_searchable is set to false, the search function will not be enabled. To do this, you would add the following line to your WordPress theme or plugin’s header:.

if ( !is_searchable() ) {

The search_query function should be self-explanatory. It allows users to search for content on the site. The $query variable is used to parse the querystring. If the $query variable is empty, the querystring is passed through to the WordPress core search function.

The results of the search are returned in the $results variable. If the $query variable is not empty, then the query_vars parameter is used to determine which parameters should be used in the query.