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

Question

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?

Answer 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.

Answer 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'));