How to Get First Image in Post in WordPress

Are you looking for a way to get the first image in your post? While there’s probably a plugin for this, we have created a quick code snippet that you can use to get first image in post in WordPress.

Instructions:

All you have to do is add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or in a site-specific plugin:

function catch_that_image() {
  global $post, $posts;
  $first_img = '';
  ob_start();
  ob_end_clean();
  $output = preg_match_all('//i', $post->post_content, $matches);
  $first_img = $matches [1] [0];

  // no image found display default image instead
  if(empty($first_img)){
    $first_img = "/images/default.jpg";
  }
  return $first_img;
}

Note: If this is your first time adding code snippets in WordPress, then please refer to our guide on how to properly add code snippets in WordPress, so you don’t accidentally break your site.

If you liked this code snippet, please consider checking out our other articles on the site like: 9 best WordPress accordion plugins and how to fix the error establishing database connection in WordPress.