How to get only manual excerpts?

Question

I have a plugin I'm modifying in which I need to return the manual excerpt if it exists, and if not, nothing. How would I go about that? Here's my code so far:

            $excerpts = sprintf(
                '<a href="%1$s">Apply</a>',
                esc_attr( sprintf( __( '%s' ), get_the_excerpt() ) ),
                get_the_excerpt()
            );

It works, but it only returns the automatically generated excerpt. Is there an argument for get_the_excerpt() to do what I want?

Answer 1

Answering my own question. Solved with an if else statement using has_excerpt.

            if( has_excerpt ( $_post, ID ) ) {
                 $author = sprintf( '<a href="%1$s">Apply</a>', esc_attr( get_the_excerpt( $_post ) ) );
            } else {
                 $author = '';
            }

It only makes sense, really.