Stuff

Hi, I’m trying to create a WordPress theme.  New to WP and all its functions.  Was trying to make it echo the author name and if he has a website in his profile, than hyperlink to his website.  Was trying something like this:
<?php
if(the_author_url()) { ?>
<a href="<?php the_author_url(); ?>”>
<?php echo get_author_name($post->post_author); ?></a>
<?php } else { echo get_author_name($post->post_author); } ?>
But it just executes the_author_url() and doesn’t put it into a variable.  Any advice would be awesome ;) Thanks.