The problem

WordPress have a built in function called get_permalink. However, it only accepts an ID as an in parameter. I can’t get a permalink if I have a page / post name.

The solution

I created a function that returns an URL when sending a post / page name as an in parameter. Put the function into your functions.php in your theme folder.

function get_permalink_by_name($post_name)
{
     global $post;
     global $wpdb;
     $id = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT ID FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_name = '".$post_name."'");
     return get_permalink($id);
}

The function call

Call the function inside the loop, somewhere in your theme. The code below prints out the current user information.

echo get_permalink_by_name('my-post-name');

Improvements

Do you have any ideas, bugs, features or anything else to improve the code? Write a comment and I’ll look into it.