How to Add a Sortable User Registration Date Column in WordPress

The All Users screen in the WordPress admin doesn’t show when each account was created. This snippet adds a Registration date column to the users table and makes it sortable, so you can list your newest or oldest users with one click.

Add the code to your child theme’s functions.php or to a small custom plugin.

/*
 * Create a column. And maybe remove some of the default ones
 * @param array $columns Array of all user table columns {column ID} => {column Name} 
 */
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 the registration dates of the users
 * @param string $row_output text/HTML output of a table cell
 * @param string $column_id_attr column ID
 * @param int $user user ID (in fact - table row ID)
 */
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:
	}
 
	return $row_output;
 
}
 
/*
 * Make our "Registration date" column sortable
 * @param array $columns Array of all user sortable columns {column ID} => {orderby GET-param} 
 */
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 );
}

How it works

The snippet uses three filters of the users list table:

• manage_users_columns adds a column with the key registration_date and the label “Registration date”. Uncomment the unset() line if you also want to remove a default column such as Posts.
• manage_users_custom_column fills the cells. For the registration_date column it reads the user’s registered value with get_the_author_meta() and formats it with PHP’s date(). All other columns keep their normal output.
• manage_users_sortable_columns makes the column header clickable and maps it to orderby=registered, a sort order the WordPress user query already supports.

Customize it

Change $date_format to any PHP date format. The default j M, Y H:i shows dates like 4 Feb, 2021 14:30. WordPress stores the registration time in UTC, so the time in the column is UTC too, not your site’s timezone.

After copying, check the wp_parse_args() line: the arrow between 'registration_date' and 'registered' must be a plain =>. If you see => there instead, replace it, otherwise PHP stops with a parse error.

The original tutorial on rudrastyh.com explains the code step by step: How to add a Sortable User Registration Date Column to the All Users page.

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