What's the difference between is_active_sidebar() and is_dynamic_sidebar()

  • From the docs…

    is_dynamic_sidebar:
    “This Conditional Tag checks if the current sidebar has active widgets”

    is_active_sidebar:
    “This Conditional Tag checks if a given sidebar is active (in use).”

    What’s the difference?

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  • Hi there,

    One can register multiple sidebars on a given theme, but one might not necessarily add widgets to a particular one. That’s where the tags you are asking about come in handy:
    is_active_sidebar (‘number’, ‘id’, or ‘name’) returns true if a certain sidebar (identified by its ID, number, or name) contains widgets and false if it does not.
    is_dynamic_sidebar returns true if the current sidebar contains widgets and false if it does snot.
    The tag is_active_sidebar is newer since it was introduced in WP 2.8, while is_dynamic_sidebar was introduced in WP 2.2.

    I hope this explanation helps.

    Thread Starter harikaram

    (@harikaram)

    Oh I see, the later just checks whether *any* sidebar is registered and has widgets – possibly a throw back to the time when there was only 1 sidebar?

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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