How to modify the output of the_content

To alter the output of the content you need to put something like this in your theme’s function.php.

function add_before_content($content) {
  return 'Hey! I just put stuff before the content. '.$content;
}
add_filter('the_content', add_before_content);

What version of WP are you using? What theme? And do you have an URL?

Hi apljdi,

thanks for reply.

$wp_version = ‘2.8.4’;
theme is praggio..

if I use add_filter to add in the content, like you said, it will add something instead of modify/replace something. am i right ?
Do I code the following way ? the output should be dynamic..

function add_before_content($content) {
		$content = "<table class=\"link\">";
		$content .= "";
		$content .= "</table>";
       return $content;
}
add_filter('the_content', add_before_content);

But I suppose I should not add something before the content, instead I should amend or replace the output..

Appreciate your kind advice…

sky

if I use add_filter to add in the content,

Well, if you use the function I supplied it will just add rather trivial content, but the same filter can be used with a different function to modify or replace content. My function was just a very simple example. ‘add_filter’ by itself just adds a function that processes the content. How it processes the content depends on the function. Your code will just produce an empty table over-writing existing content data. You’ll need to use something like preg_replace() to add the classes you want without over-writing the existing content data.

hi apljdi,

Thank you very much.

with <?php the_content(__(‘(more…)’)); ?>
turn out to be a table data:
<table…>
…
…
</table>

I’m thinking how actually from where the content data is being populated, is it being retrieved from database level ? or defined somewhere.
I checked all the files in wp-includes/* , I couldn’t find anything that define that.

I still puzzle…from where does the
the_content(__('(more...)'));
get the content data from specifically?

cheers,
Sky

I’m thinking how actually from where the content data is being populated, is it being retrieved from database level ?

Yes. The content is stored in the database in wp_posts table in the post_content column. But WordPress does not return post_content as a table by default. Something else is doing that. Unless you’ve created a table in the post by basically typing in the html for a table in the post edit form, its probably your theme that is generating the table using post_content for bits of it.