---
title: "The has_action() WordPress function"
description: "When writing a WordPress plugin or theme, you may need to check if an action hook exists before running additional code. In this article, we will show you the has_action WordPress function as well as..."
url: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/wordpress/the-has-action-wordpress-function/
date: 2014-10-20
modified: 2021-05-27
author: "Jeff Matson"
categories: ["WordPress Hosting", "WordPress Tutorials"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# The has_action() WordPress function

When writing a WordPress plugin or theme, you may need to check if an action hook exists before running additional code. In this article, we will show you the *has_action* WordPress function as well as how to use it.

## Usage

<?php has_action( $tag, $function_to_check ) ?>

## Parameters

The *has_action* function includes 2 parameters, on of them being required and the other optional. The following are the parameters that can be defined:

### $tag

This parameter is simply the name of the action hook that you want to check for actions on. This is a required parameter as without it, the has_action function would not know what hook to check for.

### $function_to_check

The *$function_to_check* is an optional parameter that can be used to check if a custom function has been hooked into the action. By default, it is set to false but if the custom function is defined here, it will return the priority of the function. If the function does not exist, it will return false.

## Code Example

### Determine if an action exists

if ( has_action(‘my_hook’, ‘hooked_action’) ) {

// do something

}

In the above example, we are simply checking to see if the hook *my_hook* has an action registered for it. If it does, additional code will be executed.