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Function Reference/get the author meta

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Description

This function returns the desired meta data for a user. If used within The Loop, the user ID need not be specified, and the displayed data is that of the current post author. A user ID must be specified if used outside The Loop.

get_the_author_meta() returns the data for use in PHP. To display the information instead, use the_author_meta()

If the specified meta field does not exist for this user, the empty string is returned.

Usage

 <?php get_the_author_meta( $field, $userID ); ?> 

Parameters

$field 
(string) Field name for the data item to be returned. Valid values:
  • user_login
  • user_pass
  • user_nicename
  • user_email
  • user_url
  • user_registered
  • user_activation_key
  • user_status
  • display_name
  • nickname
  • first_name
  • last_name
  • description (Biographical Info from the user's profile)
  • jabber
  • aim
  • yim
  • user_level
  • user_firstname
  • user_lastname
  • user_description
  • rich_editing
  • comment_shortcuts
  • admin_color
  • plugins_per_page
  • plugins_last_view
  • ID
$userID 
(integer) If a user ID is passed to the function, it will return data for the specified user ID.

Examples

Get A User's Email Address

Get the email address for the author of the current post and store it in the $user_email variable for further use. (Remember, this function returns data, it doesn't display it.) 

<?php $user_email = get_the_author_meta('user_email'); ?>

Show a User's Display Name With Email Address Linked

Get the email address for user ID 25, and echo it using their display name as the anchor text. 

<p>Email the author: <a href="mailto:<?php echo get_the_author_meta('user_email', 25); ?>"><?php the_author_meta('display_name', 25); ?></a></p>

Notes

Plugins may add additional fields to the user profile, which in turn adds new key/value pairs to the wp_usermeta database table. This additional data can be retrieved by passing the field's key to the function as the $field parameter.

Change Log

Since: 2.8.0

Source File

get_the_author_meta() is located in wp-includes/author-template.php.

Related

the_author(), get_the_author(), the_author_link(), get_the_author_link(), the_author_meta(), get_the_author_meta(), the_author_posts(), get_the_author_posts(), the_author_posts_link(), get_author_posts_url(), get_the_modified_author(), the_modified_author(), wp_dropdown_users(), wp_list_authors()

See also index of Function Reference and index of Template Tags.
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