the_author_meta() – Function | Developer.WordPress.org

Outputs the field from the user’s DB object. Defaults to current post’s author.

Parameters

$fieldstringoptional: Selects the field of the users record. See get_the_author_meta() for the list of possible fields.
More Arguments from get_the_author_meta( … $field )
The user field to retrieve.
Default:''
$user_idint|falseoptional: User ID. Defaults to the current post author.
Default:false

More Information

This template tag displays a desired meta data field for a user. Only one field is returned at a time, you need to specify which you want.

If this tag is used within The Loop, the user ID value need not be specified, and the displayed data is that of the current post author. A user ID can be specified if this tag is used outside The Loop.

If the meta field does not exist, nothing is printed.

NOTE: Use get_the_author_meta() if you need to return (and do something with) the field, rather than just display it.

For parameter $userID, if the user ID fields is used, then this function display the specific field for this user ID.

Source

function the_author_meta( $field = '', $user_id = false ) {
	$author_meta = get_the_author_meta( $field, $user_id );

	/**
	 * Filters the value of the requested user metadata.
	 *
	 * The filter name is dynamic and depends on the $field parameter of the function.
	 *
	 * @since 2.8.0
	 *
	 * @param string    $author_meta The value of the metadata.
	 * @param int|false $user_id     The user ID.
	 */
	echo apply_filters( "the_author_{$field}", $author_meta, $user_id );
}

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Hooks

apply_filters( “the_author_{$field}”, string $author_meta, int|false $user_id ): Filters the value of the requested user metadata.

Uses	Description
get_the_author_meta()`wp-includes/author-template.php`	Retrieves the requested data of the author of the current post.
apply_filters()`wp-includes/plugin.php`	Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.

Used by	Description
the_author_icq()`wp-includes/deprecated.php`	Display the ICQ number of the author of the current post.
the_author_yim()`wp-includes/deprecated.php`	Display the Yahoo! IM name of the author of the current post.
the_author_msn()`wp-includes/deprecated.php`	Display the MSN address of the author of the current post.
the_author_aim()`wp-includes/deprecated.php`	Display the AIM address of the author of the current post.
the_author_url()`wp-includes/deprecated.php`	Display the URL to the home page of the author of the current post.
the_author_ID()`wp-includes/deprecated.php`	Display the ID of the author of the current post.
the_author_description()`wp-includes/deprecated.php`	Display the description of the author of the current post.
the_author_login()`wp-includes/deprecated.php`	Display the login name of the author of the current post.
the_author_firstname()`wp-includes/deprecated.php`	Display the first name of the author of the current post.
the_author_lastname()`wp-includes/deprecated.php`	Display the last name of the author of the current post.
the_author_nickname()`wp-includes/deprecated.php`	Display the nickname of the author of the current post.
the_author_email()`wp-includes/deprecated.php`	Display the email of the author of the current post.

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Changelog

Version	Description
2.8.0	Introduced.

User Contributed Notes

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Codex 10 years ago

You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 3You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
Display a User Email Address
Displays the email address for user ID 25.
```
<p><?php printf( __( 'The email address for user id 25 is %s', 'textdomain' ), get_the_author_meta( 'user_email',25 ) ); ?></p>
```
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Skip to note 5 content

Codex 10 years ago

You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 3You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
Advanced Uses
A plugin may add an additional field in the registration or manage users, which adds a new value in the wp_usermeta (where wp_ is your data base prefix. For this example we will use a Twitter ID if a plugin set meta_key value to “twitter” and meta_value to “wordpress” then
```
<p><?php printf( __( 'This author’s Twitter name is %s', 'textdomain' ), get_the_author_meta( 'twitter' ) ); ?></p>
```
would return:

This author’s Twitter name is WordPress
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Peter Ph 9 years ago

You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: -4You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
And if you actually want to show the Author description using this function you can just do:
```
<?php $authorDesc = the_author_meta('description'); echo $authorDesc; ?>
```
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the_author_meta( string $field = '', int|false $user_id = false )

In this article

Description

See also