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PHP PHP Arrays and Control Structures PHP Arrays Indexed Arrays

Posted by A X
A X
12,842 Points

Why is Implode in PHP Useful?

I'm not understanding the use(s) for implode in PHP when referencing an array. I get it that implode prints out the values of an array, but when would you ever need to do this & why? If someone could provide a simple example, I'd appreciate it.

2 Answers

Benjamin Payne
Benjamin Payne
8,142 Points
Benjamin Payne
Benjamin Payne
8,142 Points

Implode is useful when you just need to put the elements of an array in some delimited form. For example say you had an array with a City, State, and Zip code in it. Instead of looping through the array you can just use implode to get a comma separated string:

<?php

$address = ['123 Sand Street', 'Mos Eisley', '45891'];

echo implode(', ', $address);

// 123 Sand Street, Mos Eisley, 45891

Hope that helps.

Thanks,

Ben

Julian Helmholz
Julian Helmholz
3,242 Points
Julian Helmholz
Julian Helmholz
3,242 Points

Correct, but the delimiter should be first: echo implode("\n", $learn);

Benjamin Payne
Benjamin Payne
8,142 Points
Benjamin Payne
Benjamin Payne
8,142 Points

Wow...three years on and no one caught that. This has been updated.

kevin hudson
PLUS
kevin hudson
Courses Plus Student 11,987 Points
kevin hudson
kevin hudson
Courses Plus Student 11,987 Points

WOW...Five years and this seems like extra work compared to other programming languages. Feels like the developers that improved PHP were just trying to be different. I mean, in just about any other language you can access an array with console.log(array) static method now we have to be different and call it 'implode', and on top of that we have to specify the delimiter. There must be a better method like console.log or writeline. It's like taking a step back just to be different.