How can I check if a post with a particular slug or title exists?

Question

I want to know if a particular page exists. I'd like to check against either it's slug or it's title.

There is a function called 'post_exists'. But this function seems to only work if it's invoked in hooks applicable to admin screens.

Is there a similar function that can be used in other contexts?

Answer 1

You can use get_page_by_title() or get_page_by_path().

By default, both return a page's WP_Post object, from which you can extract data. If the page doesn't exist, they'll return null.

You can also use them on post types other than the built-in page.

// By slug.
$slug = 'sample-page';
$page_by_slug = get_page_by_path( $slug );

// By title.
$title = 'Sample Page';
$page_by_title = get_page_by_title( $title );