I want to display only parent categories in wordpress

I would be happy if somebody in the house can put me through on how to edit WordPress file or whatever to hide subcategories at my sidebar and show only parent categories so as to minimize space at the sidebar. Thank in advance

 

It's easy. Just go to your admin panel -> Appearance -> Widgets ,
find categories widget , click on the right arrow and will display three options checkboxes : Display as dropdown , Show post counts and Show hierarchy .

Uncheck "Show hierarchy" and click Save button.

 

Or if you don't have widgets and you want to edit it in sidebar.php file you can add this:

<ul>
<?php wp_list_categories('hierarchical=0'); ?> 
</ul>

Code (markup):

 

Thank U so much. I used option 1 above by Hefaistos, the subcategories links were still showing under parent categories. I want to get rid of the subcategories links from showing. I tried to utilized option 2 but to no avail, and i guess maybe i don't know on what line in the sidebar php to paste the code. Any additional advise?

 

How do you currently displaying your categories? Widget?

If you don't mind using hardcode you can use this on your sidebar.php file:

<ul>
 <?php wp_list_categories('depth=1'); ?>
 </ul>

Code (markup):