Want to check if a shortcode already exists in WordPress? From the time WordPress 3.6 came out in 2013, there’s a simple way to find out if a shortcode is ready to use in WordPress. You can do this using something called the “shortcode_exists” function.
This comes in handy when you’re putting extra things in your theme’s “functions.php” file using pieces of code or when you’re making a special tool just for your site. You see, it’s a good idea to check if a shortcode is already there before you add a new one. That way, you won’t mess up any existing shortcodes.
<?php
if ( shortcode_exists( 'image_gallery' ) ) {
echo 'The [image_gallery] shortcode already exists';
}
if ( !shortcode_exists( 'image_gallery' ) ) {
echo 'The [image_gallery] shortcode does not exist';
This can also come in handy when you want to make sure a shortcode is there before you use a function called “do_shortcode” in your code.
It’s also really helpful if you’re taking away a tool (a plugin), and you want to catch places where a certain shortcode is still being used on your site. This way, you won’t see any errors.
Here’s an example: Imagine you had a plugin that used a special code like [modula], but you took it out and started using another one like [envira-gallery]. If you’re a developer, you can use this special bit of code to automatically change [modula] to [envira-gallery] everywhere it shows up and make sure things work correctly.
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