author_can( int|WP_Post $post, string $capability, mixed $args )

Returns whether the author of the supplied post has the specified capability.

Description

This function also accepts an ID of an object to check against if the capability is a meta capability. Meta capabilities such as edit_post and edit_user are capabilities used by the map_meta_cap() function to map to primitive capabilities that a user or role has, such as edit_posts and edit_others_posts.

Example usage:

author_can( $post, 'edit_posts' );
author_can( $post, 'edit_post', $post->ID );
author_can( $post, 'edit_post_meta', $post->ID, $meta_key );

Parameters

$post

(int|WP_Post) (Required) Post ID or post object.

$capability

(string) (Required) Capability name.

$args

(mixed) (Optional) further parameters, typically starting with an object ID.

Return

(bool) Whether the post author has the given capability.

Source

File: wp-includes/capabilities.php

function author_can( $post, $capability, ...$args ) {
	$post = get_post( $post );
	if ( ! $post ) {
		return false;
	}

	$author = get_userdata( $post->post_author );

	if ( ! $author ) {
		return false;
	}

	return $author->has_cap( $capability, ...$args );
}

Changelog

Version Description
5.3.0 Formalized the existing and already documented ...$args parameter by adding it to the function signature.
2.9.0 Introduced.

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Licensed under the GNU GPLv2+ License.
https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/author_can