Create a comma-separated string from a single column of an array of objects

Question

I'm using a foreach loop to echo out some values from my database, I need to strip the last comma from the last loop if that makes sense.

My loop is just simple, as below

foreach($results as $result){
  echo $result->name.',';
}

Which echos out

result,result,result,result,

I just need to kill that pesky last comma.

Solution 1

First get all the output by using output buffering. Then, trim the comma and display it. So, do it like this:

ob_start();
foreach($results as $result)
{
   echo $result->name.',';
}
$output = ob_get_clean();

echo rtrim($output, ',');

The output buffering method helps if the inside loop is very big (and OP is posting here just for brevity), then using OB is easier without changing the internals of the loop.

Solution 2

Better:

$resultstr = array();
foreach ($results as $result) {
  $resultstr[] = $result->name;
}
echo implode(",",$resultstr);

Solution 3

1. Concat to string but add | before

$s = '';
foreach ($results as $result) { 
    if ($s) $s .= '|';
    $s .= $result->name; 
}
echo $s;

2. Echo | only if not last item

$s = '';
$n = count($results);
foreach ($results as $i => $result) { 
    $s .= $result->name;
    if (($i+1) != $n) $s .= '|';
}
echo $s;

3. Load to array and then implode

$s = array();
foreach ($results as $result) { 
    $s[] = $result->name;
}
echo implode('|', $s);

4. Concat to string then cut last | (or rtrim it)

$s = '';
foreach ($results as $result) { 
    $s .= $result->name . '|';
}
echo substr($s, 0, -1); # or # echo rtrim($s, '|');

5. Concat string using array_map()

echo implode('|', array_map(function($result) { return $result->name; }, $results));

Solution 4

$result_names = '';
foreach($results as $result){
    $result_names .= $result->name.',';
}
echo rtrim($result_names, ',');

Solution 5

I've been having the same issue with this similar problem recently. I fixed it by using an increment variable $i, initializing it to 0, then having it increment inside the foreach loop. Within that loop place an if, else, with the echo statement including a comma if the $i counter is less than the sizeof() operator of your array/variable.

I don't know if this would fix your issue per se, but it helped me with mine. I realize this question is years-old, but hopefully this will help someone else. I'm fairly new to PHP so I didn't quite understand a lot of the Answers that were given before me, though they were quite insightful, particularly the implode one.

$i=0;
foreach ($results as $result) {
    $i++;
    if(sizeof($results) > $i) {
        echo $result . ", ";
    } else {
        echo $result;
    }
}

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