How do I count comma-separated values in PHP?

Question

I have a variable holding values separated by a comma (Implode), and I'm trying to get the total count of the values in that variable. However. count() is just returning 1.

I've tried converting the comma-separated values to a properly formatted array which still spits out1.

So here is the quick snippet where the sarray session is equal to value1,value2,value3:

$schools = $_SESSION['sarray'];
$result = count($schools);

Answer 1

You need to explode $schools into an actual array:

$schools = $_SESSION['sarray'];
$schools_array = explode(",", $schools);
$result = count($schools_array);

if you just need the count, and are 100% sure it's a clean comma separated list, you could also use substr_count() which may be marginally faster and, more importantly, easier on memory with very large sets of data:

$result = substr_count( $_SESSION['sarray'], ",") +1; 
 // add 1 if list is always a,b,c;

Answer 2

Should be

$result = count(explode(',',$schools));