arraypress/wp-mdash

Minimal WordPress polyfill for handling empty values with mdash

dev-main 2026-01-31 15:35 UTC

Requires

• php: >=7.4

GPL-2.0-or-later

• David Sherlock

• wordpress
• formatting
• wp
• mdash
• polyfill
• empty-values
• arraypress

README

Minimal WordPress polyfill for handling empty values with em dashes.

Installation

composer require arraypress/wp-mdash

Functions

mdash( $value ): string

Return an em dash if value is empty, otherwise return the value.

mdash( '' );         // '—'
mdash( null );       // '—'
mdash( false );      // '—'
mdash( 0 );          // '—'
mdash( 'Hello' );    // 'Hello'
mdash( 42 );         // '42'

mdash_esc( $value ): string

Return an em dash if value is empty, otherwise return the escaped value.

mdash_esc( '' );                    // '—'
mdash_esc( 'Hello' );               // 'Hello'
mdash_esc( '<script>alert()</script>' );  // '&lt;script&gt;alert()&lt;/script&gt;'

Usage

Admin Tables

<table class="wp-list-table">
    <tr>
        <td><?php echo mdash_esc( $user->display_name ); ?></td>
        <td><?php echo mdash_esc( $user->last_login ); ?></td>
        <td><?php echo mdash( $user->post_count ); ?></td>
    </tr>
</table>

Settings Pages

<tr>
    <th>API Key</th>
    <td><?php echo mdash_esc( get_option( 'api_key' ) ); ?></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <th>Last Sync</th>
    <td><?php echo mdash( $last_sync_date ); ?></td>
</tr>

Reports

echo 'Total Sales: ' . mdash( $sales_count );
echo 'Average Rating: ' . mdash( $avg_rating );
echo 'Customer Notes: ' . mdash_esc( $customer_notes );

When to Use Each

Function	Use When
mdash()	Value is already safe (numbers, dates, pre-escaped)
mdash_esc()	Value contains user input or untrusted data

Requirements

• PHP 7.4+
• WordPress 5.0+

License

GPL-2.0-or-later