finding node values in drupal

How does one fine the node author, node group (type) and the node content in drupal

$author = user_load($node->uid);

$node->type

$node-&开发者_高级运维gt;body

Are there alternate ways of finding these values?

A good way to "find" values it to simply dump the available objects, arrays, or other variables. My personal favorite way to do that is to install the Devel module, then use the dpm() function to output variables into the message area of the page. The Drupal for Firebug module is similar, but can be used to send variables to the Firebug console. Drupal 7 includes a useful debug() command.