{% for post in site.posts %}
  {% assign authors_string = authors_string | append: ", " | append: post.author %}

  {% comment %}
    iterate over authors array that some blog posts have for multiple authors %}
  {% endcomment %}
  {% for author in post.authors %}
    {% assign authors_string = authors_string | append: ", " | append: author %}
  {% endfor %}
{% endfor %}

{% assign author_array = authors_string | split: ", " %}
{% assign unique_authors_string = author_array | uniq | join: ", " %}
{% assign unique_authors = unique_authors_string | split: ", " %}

{% for author in unique_authors %}
{% if author != "" %}
{% assign person = site.people | where: 'short_name', author | first %}
{% assign author_map_string = author_map_string | append: ", " | append: person.name | append: "-" | append: person.short_name %}
{% endif %}
{% endfor %}

{% assign author_map = author_map_string | split: ","  %}
{% assign sorted_author_map = author_map | sort | join: ", " %}
{% assign sorted_author_array = sorted_author_map | split: ", " %}

<div class="flex-section">
    <div class="searchInput">
        <select style="border-color: white; height: 45px;" id="authors" class="flex-item form-control" onchange="searchBlogs()">
            <option value="" disabled selected>Authors</option>
            <option value="All">All</option>
            {% for author in sorted_author_array %}
                {% if author != "" %}
                    {% assign name = author | split: "-" | first %}
                    {% assign short_name = author | split: "-" | last %}
                    {% assign person = site.people | where: 'short_name', short_name %}
                    <option value="{{short_name}}">{{name}}</option>
                {% endif %}
            {% endfor %}
        </select>
        <i id="authorReset" class="resetIcon"></i>
    </div>
</div>