Add a Sortable User Registration Date Column to All Users Page

There are could be different situations in WordPress when you will need to sort users by registration date. For example you may notice that spam users has been registered recently on your website and it is kind of difficult to find them in your users list because by default it is sorted alphabetically.

In this tutorial we are about to create a “Registration date” column just like on the screenshot below and of course, what is most important we are going to make it sortable.

In order to implement this feature we don’t need to use any plugins (but we could of course), all we need to do is to use three WordPress filter hooks:

• manage_users_columns – to add a columnt to All Users page,
• manage_users_custom_column – to display the registration date inside it,
• manage_users_sortable_columns – to make it sortable.

Let’s get started!

If you don’t know where to insert the code from this tutorial, please check this guide.

/*
 * Creating a column (it is also possible to remove some default ones)
 */
add_filter( 'manage_users_columns', 'rudr_modify_user_table' );
function rudr_modify_user_table( $columns ) {
	
	// unset( $columns['posts'] ); // maybe you would like to remove default columns
	$columns[ 'registration_date' ] = 'Registration date'; // add new
	return $columns;

}

/*
 * Fill our new column with registration dates of the users
 */
add_filter( 'manage_users_custom_column', 'rudr_modify_user_table_row', 10, 3 );
function rudr_modify_user_table_row( $row_output, $column_id_attr, $user ) {
	
	$date_format = 'j M, Y H:i';

	switch( $column_id_attr ) {
		case 'registration_date' : {
			return date( $date_format, strtotime( get_the_author_meta( 'registered', $user ) ) );
			break;
		}
		default : {
			break;
		}
	}

	return $row_output;

}

/*
 * Make our "Registration date" column sortable
 */
add_filter( 'manage_users_sortable_columns', 'rudr_make_registered_column_sortable' );
function rudr_make_registered_column_sortable( $columns ) {
	
	return wp_parse_args( array( 'registration_date' => 'registered' ), $columns );
	
}

Some notes:

• On line 7 I am showing you how to remove a specific column if you don’t need it. I am using posts coumn ID but the other default ones are name, email and role. Keep in mind that you can always hide those column in “Screen options” instead.
• On line 19 I set the date format to display. You can use any format that supported by the date() PHP function.
• get_the_author_meta() function returns the date user registered in the same format it is stored in database: 2017-02-09 05:37:39.
• I am using wp_parse_args() to merge two arrays. If $columns array already contains the element with registration_date key, this element value will be just updated.

If the column haven’t appeared in your WordPress admin area on the Users > All Users page or maybe you would like to hide the other columns without code — try to use “Screen Options” tab then.

If you have any questions left I’m ready to help you in comments.

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Misha Rudrastyh

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