How to cast array elements to strings in PHP?

php string arrays casting

89,335

Solution 1

A one-liner:

$a = array_map('strval', $a);
// strval is a callback function

See PHP DOCS:

array_map

strval

Solution 2

Alix Axel has the nicest answer. You can also apply anything to the array though with array_map like...

//All your objects to string.
$a = array_map(function($o){return (string)$o;}, $a);
//All your objects to string with exclamation marks!!!
$a = array_map(function($o){return (string)$o."!!!";}, $a);

Enjoy

Solution 3

Not tested, but something like this should do it?

foreach($a as $key => $value) {
    $new_arr[$key]=$value->__toString();
}
$a=$new_arr;

Solution 4

Are you looking for implode?

$array = array('lastname', 'email', 'phone');

$comma_separated = implode(",", $array);

echo $comma_separated; // lastname,email,phone

View more solutions

89,335

Author by

acme

Diving into web development since over 15 years.

Updated on April 10, 2021

Comments

acme about 3 years
If I have a array with objects:
```
$a = array($objA, $objB);
```
(each object has a __toString()-method)

How can I cast all array elements to string so that array $a contains no more objects but their string representation? Is there a one-liner or do I have to manually loop through the array?
Kemo over 14 years

read the question, it says "is there a one-liner or do I have to manually loop..." :)
Gordon over 14 years

It does. Simple implode($array) will do.
Ben Everard over 14 years

Yes, and as I suggested in the comment to Alix's post I would have offered his solution had I have known about it.
Alix Axel over 14 years

@Gordon: It'll merge all the strings in one though, I think the OP wants to keep the __toString() generated strings in the corresponding array elements.
acme over 14 years

Right, I want the array to be still intact and only the elements in it casted to string.
Gordon over 14 years

@Alix Oh, I see. Yes. Then implode won't do.
nikc.org over 14 years

explode(',', implode(',' $array)) then, perhaps? Although, the proposed array_map would be more elegant, this approach could be done like this, couldn't it?
Alix Axel over 14 years

@nikc: Not if the generated __toString() contains ,.
acme over 14 years

Yes, because actually I don't know how many elements there are in the array. The example above was just reduced to two elements to make it more clear.
acme about 12 years

No, because my array consists of objects, not strings. And the result should be an array and not an imploded string.
Tasik about 2 years

Can also be called like return array_map(fn ($item) => strval($item), $items); if you'd rather not reference the function 'strval' as a string.