Fix Warnings that shouldn't be necessary to fix

Question

I was trying to fix some warnings and I noticed that I get constantly

PHP Notice:  Undefined variable:

If I use :

$categories = get_the_category(get_query_var('cat'));
$cat_name = $categories[0]->slug;

or/with

$categories = get_category(get_query_var('cat'));
$category_id   = $categories->term_id;
$category_slug = $categories->slug;
$title_page    = $categories->name;

I use it in loops or conditionals

like:

$args1 = array(
  'no_found_rows' => true,
  'update_post_meta_cache' => false,
  'update_post_term_cache' => false,

  'category__in' => array($category_id),
  'posts_per_page' => 2,
  'ignore_sticky_posts' => true,

  'post_type' => 'any'
);

or/and

} else if (has_category($cat_name) && is_single()  && 
!is_singular('my_post_type')){

I always will get with Debug Mode True, that kind of Warning

So I started to work around it to get some kind of solution, and I noticed that I really didn't understand quite well the difference between get_the_category(); and get_category();

Then I tried :

$cat0 = get_category( get_query_var('cat'));

if(isset($cat0)) {

    $cat1 = get_category(get_query_var('cat'));

    $category_id   = $cat1->term_id;
    $category_slug = $cat1->slug;
    $title_page    = $cat1->name;
}

or/and

$cat4 = get_the_category(get_query_var('cat'));


    if(!isset($cat4)){
        $categories = get_the_category(get_query_var('cat'));
        $cat_name = $categories[0]->slug;
    }

    if(isset($cat4) && is_single()){
        $categories = get_the_category(get_query_var('cat'));
        $cat_name = $categories[0]->slug;
    }

but of course if get_category or get_the_category in == NULL

I will get again PHP Notice: Undefined variable: cat_name

What am I missing?

Answer 1

So there's two things going on here. Firstly get_the_category() doesn't accept a category ID as a parameter. It accepts a post ID for which to get categories from.

Judging by your code you need to use get_category():

$category = get_category( get_query_var('cat') );

The other problem is that you seem to be using $cat_name without checking if you actually have a category.

For example:

$category = get_category( $nonexistant_cat_id );

if ($category) {
    $cat_name = $category->slug;
}

echo $cat_name; // Will be an undefined variable;

In that example $cat_name isn't being set, because get_category() didn't return a category. So you can only use $cat_name if get_category() returned a category:

$category = get_the_category( $nonexistant_cat_id );

if ($category) {
    $cat_name = $category->slug;
    echo $cat_name; // No longer undefined variable;
}

Or in your example, just check if $cat_name is set in the condition before using $cat_name:

} else if (isset($cat_name) && has_category($cat_name) && is_single()  && 
!is_singular('my_post_type')){

The characterisation of this being an error that "shouldn't be necessary" to fix is incorrect. There are several problems in your code you need to address.