wrap a span tag around author's post count

Question

Is it possible to wrap a span tag around the author's post count so I can apply some css styling to the bracketed data for use in a sitemap?

On searching I found the solutions for Archives and Category per below:

//archives
function my_get_archives_link($links) {
    $links = str_replace('</a>&nbsp;(', '</a> <span>(', $links);
    $links = str_replace(')', ')</span>', $links);
    return $links;
}
add_filter('get_archives_link', 'my_get_archives_link');
//categories
function my_wp_list_categories($links) {
    $links = str_replace('</a> (', '</a> <span>(', $links);
    $links = str_replace(')', ')</span>', $links);
    return $links;
}
add_filter('wp_list_categories', 'my_wp_list_categories');

These two work really well for Archives and Category and I was hoping there would be something similar for the Author's post count.

The html is currently like this:

<li><a href="http://domain.com/author/user123/" title="Posts by user123">user123</a> (8)</li>   

I would like it to be like this:

<li><a href="http://domain.com/author/user123/" title="Posts by user123">user123</a> <span>(8)</span></li>  

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It doesn't appear that wp_list_authors() supplies an appropriate hook to modify anything unfortunately. The next best thing would be to just do a string replace and hope for the best :/

$start_wrapper  = '<span class="author-post-count">';       // Set our wrapper start tag
$end_wrapper    = '</span>';                                // Set our wrapper end tag
$author_html    = wp_list_authors( array(                   // Get Author HTML
    'optioncount'   => true,
    'echo'          => false,                               // Ensure we return and do not echo ( default is TRUE )
) );
$author_html    = str_replace( '</a> (', "</a> {$start_wrapper}(", $author_html );
$author_html    = str_replace( '</li>', "{$end_wrapper}</li>", $author_html );
echo $author_html;

The above will attempt to replace around the anchor tag HTML so you have a proper wrapper. At which point you can echo or append $author_html where you see fit.