how to get the value of current category with PHP code?

try to optimize a add-on. but I am a newbie of PHP.

how to get the value of current category with PHP code?

such as

top Category----subCate1----subCate2---subCate3: Product A

When the page of Product A displayed, how to get the value of current category with PHP code?

also how to get the value of all parent categores all the way to top category?

Thank you so much

What is it that you are actually trying to do?

I get that you want to grab the category path for the product being displayed BUT what/why are you needing this and to do what?

kobra:

What is it that you are actually trying to do?

I get that you want to grab the category path for the product being displayed BUT what/why are you needing this and to do what?

Thank you so much!!

Yes, that's what I want(grab the category path ).

I am making a add-on, so I need the PHP code of grabing the category path.

Please help. Thank you !

I am making a add-on
Please expand
Where will you be when this addon is to get that info
What will the addon be expected to do with it
etc

$_GET['cPath'] holds the current category path; how you break it down to use depends on what you want to do with it, as kobra said. And of course it doesn't exist if you are not in a product/category page, so you may need to take that possibility into account in your code.

Thank you so much, gjh42!