Show the current post's category, without displaying parent category

Question

I have a series of posts that all reside within a 'Main' parent category. Various posts are assigned to sub-categories.

What I need to do is display the direct parent category for the currently viewed post, without showing other categories. Here is what I have:

• MainCat

  • subcat1

    • post a
    • post b

  • subcat2

    • post c
    • post d
    • post e

  • subcat3

    • post f
    • post g

When viewing, for example, post 'a', I need to display subcat1 - not MainCat.

I want to echo this in a custom template for this post type, and need to display the posts subcategory as a link.

I've searched all over, and have found numerous snippets that show categories, subcats, etc.. but none that will only show a posts subcat like this.

Answer 1

Check if each category has a parent:

foreach( ( get_the_category() ) as $category ) { 
    if( $category->category_parent != 0 ):
        echo $category->cat_name . ' is a child category ';
    else:
        echo $category->cat_name . ' is a parent category ';
    endif;
}