Implode an array with ", " and add "and " before the last item

This array holds a list of items, and I want to turn it into a string, but I don't know how to make the last item have a &/and before it instead of a comma.

1 => coke 2=> sprite 3=> fanta

should become

coke, sprite and fanta

This is the regular implode function:

$listString = implode(', ', $listArrau);

What's an easy way to do it?

Solution 1:

A long-liner that works with any number of items:

echo join(' and ', array_filter(array_merge(array(join(', ', array_slice($array, 0, -1))), array_slice($array, -1)), 'strlen'));

Or, if you really prefer the verboseness:

$last  = array_slice($array, -1);
$first = join(', ', array_slice($array, 0, -1));
$both  = array_filter(array_merge(array($first), $last), 'strlen');
echo join(' and ', $both);

The point is that this slicing, merging, filtering and joining handles all cases, including 0, 1 and 2 items, correctly without extra if..else statements. And it happens to be collapsible into a one-liner.

Solution 2:

I'm not sure that a one liner is the most elegant solution to this problem.

I wrote this a while ago and drop it in as required:

/**
 * Join a string with a natural language conjunction at the end. 
 * https://gist.github.com/angry-dan/e01b8712d6538510dd9c
 */
function natural_language_join(array $list, $conjunction = 'and') {
  $last = array_pop($list);
  if ($list) {
    return implode(', ', $list) . ' ' . $conjunction . ' ' . $last;
  }
  return $last;
}

You don't have to use "and" as your join string, it's efficient and works with anything from 0 to an unlimited number of items:

// null
var_dump(natural_language_join(array()));
// string 'one'
var_dump(natural_language_join(array('one')));
// string 'one and two'
var_dump(natural_language_join(array('one', 'two')));
// string 'one, two and three'
var_dump(natural_language_join(array('one', 'two', 'three')));
// string 'one, two, three or four'
var_dump(natural_language_join(array('one', 'two', 'three', 'four'), 'or'));

Solution 3:

You can pop last item and then join it with the text:

$yourArray = ('a', 'b', 'c');
$lastItem = array_pop($yourArray); // c
$text = implode(', ', $yourArray); // a, b
$text .= ' and '.$lastItem; // a, b and c

Solution 4:

Try this:

$str = array_pop($array);
if ($array)
    $str = implode(', ', $array)." and ".$str;