How to get the Role Name of the current user? (WordPress)

thnx for this code snippet! I'm running a Buddypress install (and custom theme) where it is possible to add multiple roles to one user. I adjusted your code a little bit for that to work:

<?php
//Get role name by user ID
if( !function_exists('get_user_role_name') ){
    function get_user_role_name($user_ID){
    global $wp_roles;

        $user_data = get_userdata($user_ID);
        $user_role_slug = $user_data->roles;

        foreach($user_role_slug as $user_role){
            //count user role nrs
            $user_role_nr++;
            //add comma separation of there is more then one role 
            if($user_role_nr > 1) { $user_role_list .= ", "; }
            //add role name 
            $user_role_list .= translate_user_role($wp_roles->roles[$user_role]['name']);
        }

    //return user role list
    return $user_role_list;

    }
}
?>

Maybe they've already solved this issue. But, now I just wrote this and I decided to share it.

<?php
//Get role name by user ID
if( !function_exists('get_user_role_name') ){
    function get_user_role_name($user_ID){
        global $wp_roles;

        $user_data = get_userdata($user_ID);
        $user_role_slug = $user_data->roles[0];
        return translate_user_role($wp_roles->roles[$user_role_slug]['name']);
    }
}
?>

<?php echo get_user_role_name(User ID here);?>

You can get current user role name(translatable name but not slug) by following function, you just need to pass current user role slug as a parameter:

function wp_get_current_user_translatable_role_name( $current_user_role_slug = '' ) {
    $role_name = '';

    if ( ! function_exists( 'get_editable_roles' ) ) {
        require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/user.php';
    }

    // Please note that translate_user_role doesn't work in the front-end currently.
    load_textdomain( 'default', WP_LANG_DIR . '/admin-' . get_locale() . '.mo' );

    $editable_roles = array_reverse( get_editable_roles() );

    foreach ( $editable_roles as $role => $details ) {
        $name = translate_user_role( $details['name'] );
        // preselect specified role
        if ( $current_user_role_slug == $role ) {
            $role_name  = $name;
        }
    }

    echo $role_name ;
}

Now, get current user role slug name by following code:

$user_meta = get_userdata(get_current_user_id());
$current_user_role_slug = $user_meta->roles[0];

Use wp_get_current_user_translatable_role_name( $current_user_role_slug ); function to get current user role name(translatable name but not slug).

NOTE: User must have to login to view role name.

Here is the way to get it

function get_user_role($user_id) {
    global $wp_roles;

    $roles = array();
    $user = new WP_User( $user_id );
    if ( !empty( $user->roles ) && is_array( $user->roles ) ) {
    foreach ( $user->roles as $role )
        $roles[] .= translate_user_role( $role );
    }
    return implode(', ',$roles);
} 
//then call the function with userid param
echo get_user_role( 7 );

I'm not sure if bbPress follows WordPress conventions, but WP has a global class called $WP-roles that holds the role information. So, starting from what you have, there is the role of the current user:

$current_role = $user->roles[1];

Next, retrieve a list of all roles:

$all_roles = $wp_roles->roles; 

Then, loop through $all_roles and find the $current_role":

foreach ($all_roles as $role_key => $role_details) {
  if ($role_key == $current_role) $current_role_name = $role_details['name'];
  }

Now, $current_role_name should hold the display name you're looking for (I didn't check this code, however).