Woocommerce's wc_get_orders not working in function.php? - php

Question

I am trying to get all orders from woocommerce. Following the instruction on https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce/wiki/wc_get_orders-and-WC_Order_Query
I put the following code in my function.php
// Get latest 3 orders.
$args = array(
'limit' => 3,
);
$orders = wc_get_orders( $args );
var_dump($orders);
However, it outputs an empty array.
I checked my code and found I actually used wc_get_orders in a hook as below
add_action( 'woocommerce_order_status_changed', 'change_role_on_first_purchase',10,4 );
function change_role_on_first_purchase( $order_id,$old_status, $new_status, $order ) {
$userID = $order->user_id;
$user = new WP_User( $userID );
if ( in_array('subscriber',$user->roles) ){
$args = array(
'customer' => $userID,
'exclude' => array( $order->get_id() ),
'status' => array('completed')
);
$orders = wc_get_orders($args);
if (!$orders && $new_status == "completed"){
$user->set_role('customer');
}
}
}
This is used to change the user's role from subscriber to customer after he places the first order. This function works on my site. So wc_get_orders works here. Why then it is not working in my function.php?

Answer 1

It outputs an empty array because Woocommerce has not yet registered order types/statuses when you're calling wc_get_orders()
Try adding it after init event:
add_action( 'init', 'test_init' );
function test_init() {
// Get latest 3 orders.
$args = array(
'limit' => 3,
);
$orders = wc_get_orders( $args );
var_dump($orders);
}
https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/init/