WordPress tip: Detect if a post has at least one image

WordPress tip: Detect if a post has at least one image

On a WordPress blog, it can be really handy to be able to know if a post has at least one image or not, for example for grabbing the first image and display it. This small code snippet do it, so just read on.

To achieve this hack, simply paste the code below within the loop, on your index.php, search.php or archive.php file.

<?php
$content = $post->post_content;
$searchimages = '~<img [^>]* />~';

/*Run preg_match_all to grab all the images and save the results in $pics*/

preg_match_all( $searchimages, $content, $pics );

// Check to see if we have at least 1 image
$iNumberOfPics = count($pics[0]);

if ( $iNumberOfPics > 0 ) {
     // Your post have one or more images.
}

?>

By the way, my first book has been released a few days ago. It is called "WordPress Cookbook" and as you guessed it, featured 100+ incredibles WordPress hacks to make your blog more powerful than you think it should only be.
It is available from most sellers, including Amazon, so if you like WpRecipes, for sure you'll love the WordPress Cookbook!

18 Responses

N!cklas

Jul 24 2009 12:16

Last night I used the exact same snippet, but added some extra functionality to give each category it’s own image and also put the code in functions.php

With these few rows I don’t have to check all old posts if they have an image posted and to new posts there’s no need to add images since it’s done automagically. Goodie!!

My blogpost is in swedish, but the code is international
http://www.bluecow.se/wp-recept-kategoribilder

Francois

Jul 24 2009 20:00

Cool, that’s what I asked in the forums a while ago.
Thanks a lot !

Serj

Jul 25 2009 02:06

Congratulations on your first book! I’m sure it’s great so I’ve just placed the order

Jean-Baptiste Jung

Jul 25 2009 06:51

@Serj: Thanks you very much for the order

Zack Katz

Jul 27 2009 19:54

That is a very “heavy” way of doing things; instead of reading through the text, you should just ask WP if there are any attachments:
$attachments = get_children("post_parent=$post->id&post_type=attachment&post_mime_type=image"); if ( empty($attachments) ) { return false;} else { // you have at least 1 image }

kevin

Jul 28 2009 15:46

I use the plugin “get the image” to achieve this. Small plugin and on eline of code where i want to use it, pretty cool too. There’s the link if someone wanna have a look:
http://justintadlock.com/archives/2008/05/27/get-the-image-wordpress-plugin

N!cklas

Jul 28 2009 20:34

@Zack: Oh so easy… I think I’ll use your method instead. Thanks!