# How to get a category name with the ID via API
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-get-a-category-name-with-the-id-via-api/65926
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [10 ביולי, 2017, 8:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-get-a-category-name-with-the-id-via-api/65926 "2017-07-10T08:48:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@anon89120937](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon89120937)
#### Post date: [10 ביולי, 2017, 8:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-get-a-category-name-with-the-id-via-api/65926/1 "2017-07-10T08:48:03Z")
I use Discourse API client for PHP (by @michaeld I guess) and I can’t find how to get a category name/slug with only with an ID.
I need it to display (slug and id) of all our categories and their sub-categories.
But when I get the categories list, the only information about sub-categories is their id.
---
### Author:  [@michaeld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/michaeld)
#### Post date: [10 ביולי, 2017, 9:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-get-a-category-name-with-the-id-via-api/65926/2 "2017-07-10T09:10:38Z")
I asked the same question a long time ago,
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-get-subcategory-names-using-api/29795](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-get-subcategory-names-using-api/29795)
> [@riking](#):
>
> Use /site.json for this.
---
### Author:  [@anon89120937](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon89120937)
#### Post date: [10 ביולי, 2017, 9:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-get-a-category-name-with-the-id-via-api/65926/3 "2017-07-10T09:13:41Z")
Thanks, is it implemented in your php client ?
---
### Author:  [@michaeld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/michaeld)
#### Post date: [10 ביולי, 2017, 10:17am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-get-a-category-name-with-the-id-via-api/65926/4 "2017-07-10T10:17:13Z")
No, we never implemented that. Should be fairly easy to do, I can take a look later today.
---
### Author:  [@anon89120937](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon89120937)
#### Post date: [10 ביולי, 2017, 1:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-get-a-category-name-with-the-id-via-api/65926/5 "2017-07-10T13:29:14Z")
```
function getCategoryById($categoryId) {
$datas = $this->_getRequest("/site.json");
$categories = $datas->apiresult->categories;
foreach($categories as $categorie) {
if(($categorie->id) == $categoryId) {
return $categorie;
}
}
```
---
### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [14 ביולי, 2017, 3:14am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-get-a-category-name-with-the-id-via-api/65926/6 "2017-07-14T03:14:23Z")
You should probably save the data in a global, so you can call the function multiple times in the same PHP script.
---
### Author:  [@anon89120937](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon89120937)
#### Post date: [14 ביולי, 2017, 11:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-get-a-category-name-with-the-id-via-api/65926/7 "2017-07-14T11:42:13Z")
I’d rather use /site.json once (to limit the API’s calls). We’ve added the following function to DiscourseApi.php :
```
function getSite()
{
return $this->_getRequest("/site.json");
}
```
and then use it to get wanted informations :
```
$categories = $discourseApi->getSite()->apiresult->categories;
foreach ($categories as $category) {
if (isset($category->parent_category_id)){
$categories_all[$category->parent_category_id]['subcategory'][$category->id]['id'] = $category->id;
$categories_all[$category->parent_category_id]['subcategory'][$category->id]['slug'] = $category->slug;
$categories_all[$category->parent_category_id]['subcategory'][$category->id]['name'] = $category->name;
} else {
$categories_all[$category->id]['id'] = $category->id;
$categories_all[$category->id]['slug'] = $category->slug;
$categories_all[$category->id]['name'] = $category->name;
}
}
```
(code from [congressus/application/config/discourse.structure.php at master · PartiPirate/congressus · GitHub](https://github.com/PartiPirate/congressus/blob/master/application/config/discourse.structure.php))
(We don’t use the getCategoryById() I’ve suggested before)
---
### Author:  [@nedbat](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nedbat)
#### Post date: [16 במרץ, 2020, 10:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-get-a-category-name-with-the-id-via-api/65926/8 "2020-03-16T22:22:21Z")
site.json seems to be the way to get a list of all categories. Is it mentioned somewhere in [docs.discourse.org](http://docs.discourse.org)? I was scouring the docs looking for a way to get the names of subcategories and couldn’t find it. Or is there a better way?
---
### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [17 במרץ, 2020, 12:14am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-get-a-category-name-with-the-id-via-api/65926/9 "2020-03-17T00:14:27Z")
Making an API request to `site.json` is the correct way to get a list of categories that includes subcategories. Also, if you want private categories to be returned by the request to `site.json`, you need to make an authenticated API request.
> [@nedbat](#):
>
> I was scouring the docs looking for a way to get the names of subcategories and couldn’t find it.
I’m not seeing any reference to `site.json` in the docs. SInce `categories.json` doesn’t return subcategories, the description of the `categories` route in the docs isn’t correct, it says that the route returns _all_ categories. I will fix that.