Create categories and multiple subcategories programmatically

This code show properly category in wordpress admin area. but not showing subcategory.

I Need to show 3 categories and 3 subcategories for each category?

This is what I would like to have for each category:

Category A

sub-category 1
sub-category 2
sub-category 3

I have add the following code in wordpress theme's functions.php file:

//create the main category
wp_insert_term(

// the name of the category
'Category A', 

// the taxonomy, which in this case if category (don't change)
'category', 

 array(

// what to use in the url for term archive
'slug' => 'category-a',  
 ));`

Then for each sub-category:

wp_insert_term(

// the name of the sub-category
'Sub-category 1', 

// the taxonomy 'category' (don't change)
'category',

array(
// what to use in the url for term archive
'slug' => 'sub-cat-1', 

// link with main category. In the case, become a child of the "Category A"   parent  
'parent'=> term_exists( 'Category A', 'category' )['term_id']

));

But I am getting an error:

Parse error: parse error, expecting `')'' in line 57 …

Corresponding to 'parent'=> term_exists( 'Category A', 'category' )['term_id'].

What I am doing wrong?

Solution

The problem is that you need to get the parent term id outside the function, to avoid the error. You can easily do it this way:

$parent_term_a = term_exists( 'Category A', 'category' ); // array is returned if taxonomy is given
$parent_term_a_id = $parent_term_a['term_id']; // get numeric term id

// First subcategory
wp_insert_term(
    'Sub-category 1', // the term 
    'category', // the taxonomy
    array(
        // 'description'=> 'Some description.',
        'slug' => 'sub-cat-1a',
        'parent'=> $parent_term_a_id
    )
);

// Second subcategory
wp_insert_term(
    'Sub-category 2', // the term 
    'category', // the taxonomy
    array(
        // 'description'=> 'Some description.',
        'slug' => 'sub-cat-2a',
        'parent'=> $parent_term_a_id
    )
);

// Third subcategory
wp_insert_term(
    'Sub-category 3', // the term 
    'category', // the taxonomy
    array(
        // 'description'=> 'Some description.',
        'slug' => 'sub-cat-3a',
        'parent'=> $parent_term_a_id
    )
);

Then you will use for other 2 groups of subcategories:

// For subcategory group of Category B
$parent_term_b = term_exists( 'Category B', 'category' );
$parent_term_b_id = $parent_term_b['term_id'];

// For subcategory group of Category C
$parent_term_c = term_exists( 'Category C', 'category' );
$parent_term_c_id = $parent_term_c['term_id'];

… In the same way (taking care to have a unique slug for each subcategory, that mean at all 9 different subcategory slugs)…

Reference: