The get_the_author_meta() WordPress PHP function retrieves the requested data of the author of the current post.
Usage
get_the_author_meta( $field, $user_id );
Parameters
$field(string) – Optional. The user field to retrieve. Default: ”.$user_id(int|false) – Optional. User ID. Defaults to the current post author. Default: false.
More information
See WordPress Developer Resources: get_the_author_meta()
Examples
Display the author bio with line breaks
This example will display the author’s bio (description) while keeping the line breaks.
echo nl2br(get_the_author_meta('description'));
Get the author ID
This example retrieves the author ID of the current post, both inside and outside the loop.
// Outside loop
global $post;
$author_id = $post->post_author;
// Inside loop
$author_id = get_the_author_meta('ID');
Show a user’s display name with their email address linked
This example will display 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>
Get a user’s email address
This example will get the email address for the author of the current post and store it in the $user_email variable for further use.
$user_email = get_the_author_meta('user_email');
Display author’s description with line breaks and wrapping paragraphs
This example will display the author’s description while keeping line breaks and wrapping its paragraphs into <p> tags.
echo wpautop(get_the_author_meta('description'));