Parse authors C4LJ Wordpress

parse-string-authors.php

<?php
/*
where our site saves the authors as a string created by a meta field.
and this string is entered as anything from "Ruth Tillman and Becky Yoose" to "Ruth Tillman & Becky Yoose" to "Ruth Tillman, A. Scarlet Galvan, Becky Yoose" and must be parsed
run substitutions so names are all ', ' separated
exploding single name with no separator makes a one-item array
*/

$authors = get_the_author(); // gets the author as a string but doesn't echo, which the_author() does.

$conjunctions = array(', and ', ' and ', ' & ' );

$author_list = explode(', ', str_replace($conjunctions, ', ', $authors));

 ?>