Displays or retrieves the current post title with optional markup.

$before string Optional

Markup to prepend to the title.

Default: ''

$after string Optional

Markup to append to the title.

Default: ''

$echo bool Optional

Whether to echo or return the title. Default true for echo.

Default: true

void|string Void if $echo argument is true, current post title if $echo is false.

This function displays or returns the unescaped title of the current post. This tag may only be used within The Loop, to get the title of a post outside of the loop use get_the_title. If the post is protected or private, this will be noted by the words “Protected: ” or “Private: ” prepended to the title.

Security considerations

Like the_content() , the output of the_title() is unescaped. This is considered a feature and not a bug, see the FAQ “Why are some users allowed to post unfiltered HTML?” . If the post title is <script>alert("test");</script>, then that JavaScript code will be run wherever the_title() is used. For this reason, do not write code that allows untrusted users to create post titles.

File: wp-includes/post-template.php. View all references

function the_title( $before = '', $after = '', $echo = true ) {
	$title = get_the_title();

	if ( strlen( $title ) == 0 ) {
		return;
	}

	$title = $before . $title . $after;

	if ( $echo ) {
		echo $title;
	} else {
		return $title;
	}
}