Fatal error: Cannot redeclare load_stylesheets() (previously declared in

Question

Updated Question:

I’ve declared a basic child theme. As I create a function to enqueue stylesheets, my website crashes and gives me a Fatal error: Cannot redeclare thando_stylesheets() (previously declared in........ load_stylesheets() is a new function and has not been declared yet but I am getting an error saying it has been declared.

my function is new and has not been declared yet. Why am I getting redeclare error? All my other previously created themes do not have such an issue

Here is the error log

PHP Fatal error: Cannot redeclare thando_stylesheets() (previously declared in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/In-progress/bros/wp-content/themes/wifibros/functions.php:5) in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/In-progress/bros/wp-content/themes/Wifibros/functions.php on line 3

function thando_stylesheets() { 
    wp_register_style('bootstrap', 
        get_template_directory_uri().'/css/bootstrap.min.css',
        array(), 
        1, 
       'all');
    wp_enqueue_style('bootstrap'); 
}

Answer 1

You can't use a function name in your child theme that is in use by your parent theme. Your parent theme likely has a function named load_stylesheets(), so if you add a function with that name to your child theme you will get this error.

To work around this you need to give your child theme's function a unique name. Issues like this is why it's best practice to prefix your function names (eg. mytheme_load_stylesheets()) or use namespaces.

Not that in some cases a parent theme might have "pluggable" functions. If a parent theme defines a function inside a condition, like this:

if ( ! function_exists( 'load_stylesheets' ) ) {
    function load_stylesheets() {
        // etc.
    }
}

Then it will be possible to replace that function in your child theme by creating a new function with the same name. This is possible because the parent theme is checking that your child theme hasn't already defined a function with that name before it defines it itself. If the parent theme does not perform this check then you can't use the name.