Call to undefined function get_current_screen() on my localhost

Question

I'm using Wordpress 3.9.1 and I get the

Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_current_screen()

if I put the following in my funcitons.php or in any file of my theme:

$screen = get_current_screen();
echo $screen;

Initially when I got the error, I was working on a theme that I'm creating. However, I tried this with few other themes including TwentyFourteen, and I still got the same error. I even deleted my Wordpress database, created a fresh one and re-installed Wordpress, but still it didn't help.

I checked the get_current_screen() function by going to to wp-admin/includes/screen.php and it is there.

I am working on Xampp and I don't have any plugins activated as it is a fresh install. Also in my wp-config.php I haven't changed anything but the 'MySQL settings' (database, username and password) and 'DEBUG mode'.

Any suggestions on how to rectify this?

Answer 1

you can try following

if ( !function_exists( 'get_current_screen' ) ) { 
   require_once ABSPATH . '/wp-admin/includes/screen.php'; 
} 
$screen = get_current_screen();
echo $screen;

Answer 2

get_current_screen() is a backend function and it returns data about the current backend administration page. It makes no sense to use this in theme code. The only way it would work (I think but haven't tested) in functions.php would be if it were hooked into a backend hook later than admin_init.

You don't explain what you are trying to do with get_current_screen() but I think you are simply using it incorrectly.

Answer 3

maybe your code run before admin_init. Add it to the action:

add_action('admin_init', function(){
  $screen = get_current_screen();
  echo $screen;
});