create function to call category name and slug

Question

In several theme templates I have code to retrieve the category name and slug for the present post or category page. It is outside the loop. Here is the repeated code:

global $post;
$categories = get_the_category($post->ID);
if ( $categories ) {
foreach ($categories as $category) {
    $dw_category_slug = $category->slug;
    $dw_category_name = $category->name;
}  
}else {
    $dw_category_slug = 'utopia';
} 

I would like to be able to include this in the functions file instead of writing it in several places. This is what I have tried in my functions file:

  add_action('wp_head', 'dw_get_category');
  function dw_get_category() {
    global $post;
    $categories = get_the_category($post->ID);
           if ( $categories ) {
               foreach ($categories as $category) {
               $dw_category_slug = $category->slug;
               $dw_category_name = $category->name;
        }
        } else {
            $dw_category_slug = 'utopia';
        }         
    $dw_category[] = array('name' => $dw_category_name, 'slug' =>    $dw_category_slug);
    return $dw_category;     
    }                                                   

I would like to be able to write something like $dw_category['name'] in the template files to call the category name. I know this is the wrong way to do it. Do I need to divide this into 2 functions so there is only one value returned for the function? Or is there some other way to do this? Writing it as a class?

If interested the url is http://lenoremalenblog.com

Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

You don't need to hook the dw_get_category() function. Simply do it like this:

  function dw_get_category() {
    global $post;
    $categories = get_the_category($post->ID);
        if ( $categories ) {
           foreach ($categories as $category) {
               $dw_category_slug = $category->slug;
               $dw_category_name = $category->name;
           }
        } else {
            $dw_category_slug = 'utopia';
        }         
    $dw_category = array('name' => $dw_category_name, 'slug' =>    $dw_category_slug);
    return $dw_category;     
    } 

Then call it like this:

$the_post_cats = dw_get_category();
echo 'Category: '.$the_post_cats['name'];
echo 'Slug: '.$the_post_cats['slug'];