How to implode array with key and value without foreach in PHP

Without foreach, how can I turn an array like this

array("item1"=>"object1", "item2"=>"object2",......."item-n"=>"object-n");

to a string like this

item1='object1', item2='object2',.... item-n='object-n'

I thought about implode() already, but it doesn't implode the key with it.

If foreach it necessary, is it possible to not nest the foreach?

EDIT: I've changed the string


EDIT2/UPDATE: This question was asked quite a while ago. At that time, I wanted to write everything in one line so I would use ternary operators and nest built in function calls in favor of foreach. That was not a good practice! Write code that is readable, whether it is concise or not doesn't matter that much.

In this case: putting the foreach in a function will be much more readable and modular than writing a one-liner(Even though all the answers are great!).


You could use http_build_query, like this:

<?php
  $a=array("item1"=>"object1", "item2"=>"object2");
  echo http_build_query($a,'',', ');
?>

Output:

item1=object1, item2=object2 

Demo


and another way:

$input = array(
    'item1'  => 'object1',
    'item2'  => 'object2',
    'item-n' => 'object-n'
);

$output = implode(', ', array_map(
    function ($v, $k) {
        if(is_array($v)){
            return $k.'[]='.implode('&'.$k.'[]=', $v);
        }else{
            return $k.'='.$v;
        }
    }, 
    $input, 
    array_keys($input)
));

or:

$output = implode(', ', array_map(
    function ($v, $k) { return sprintf("%s='%s'", $k, $v); },
    $input,
    array_keys($input)
));

I spent measurements (100000 iterations), what fastest way to glue an associative array?

Objective: To obtain a line of 1,000 items, in this format: "key:value,key2:value2"

We have array (for example):

$array = [
    'test0' => 344,
    'test1' => 235,
    'test2' => 876,
    ...
];

Test number one:

Use http_build_query and str_replace:

str_replace('=', ':', http_build_query($array, null, ','));

Average time to implode 1000 elements: 0.00012930955084904

Test number two:

Use array_map and implode:

implode(',', array_map(
        function ($v, $k) {
            return $k.':'.$v;
        },
        $array,
        array_keys($array)
    ));

Average time to implode 1000 elements: 0.0004890081976675

Test number three:

Use array_walk and implode:

array_walk($array,
        function (&$v, $k) {
            $v = $k.':'.$v;
        }
    );
implode(',', $array);

Average time to implode 1000 elements: 0.0003874126245348

Test number four:

Use foreach:

    $str = '';
    foreach($array as $key=>$item) {
        $str .= $key.':'.$item.',';
    }
    rtrim($str, ',');

Average time to implode 1000 elements: 0.00026632803902445

I can conclude that the best way to glue the array - use http_build_query and str_replace


I would use serialize() or json_encode().

While it won't give your the exact result string you want, it would be much easier to encode/store/retrieve/decode later on.