user_can( int|WP_User $user, string $capability, mixed $args )

Returns whether a particular user has the specified capability.


Description

This function also accepts an ID of an object to check against if the capability is a meta capability. Meta capabilities such as edit_post and edit_user are capabilities used by the map_meta_cap() function to map to primitive capabilities that a user or role has, such as edit_posts and edit_others_posts.

Example usage:

user_can( $user->ID, 'edit_posts' );
user_can( $user->ID, 'edit_post', $post->ID );
user_can( $user->ID, 'edit_post_meta', $post->ID, $meta_key );

Parameters

$user

(Required) User ID or object.

$capability

(Required) Capability name.

$args

(Optional) further parameters, typically starting with an object ID.


Return

(bool) Whether the user has the given capability.


Source

File: wp-includes/capabilities.php

function user_can( $user, $capability ) {
	if ( ! is_object( $user ) )
		$user = get_userdata( $user );

	if ( ! $user || ! $user->exists() )
		return false;

	$args = array_slice( func_get_args(), 2 );
	$args = array_merge( array( $capability ), $args );

	return call_user_func_array( array( $user, 'has_cap' ), $args );
}


Changelog

Changelog
Version Description
5.3.0 Formalized the existing and already documented ...$args parameter by adding it to the function signature.
3.1.0 Introduced.