implode

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

implodeJoin array elements with a string

Description

implode(string $separator, array $array): string

Alternative signature (not supported with named arguments):

implode(array $array): string

Legacy signature (deprecated as of PHP 7.4.0, removed as of PHP 8.0.0):

implode(array $array, string $separator): string

Join array elements with a separator string.

Parameters

separator

Optional. Defaults to an empty string.

array

The array of strings to implode.

Return Values

Returns a string containing a string representation of all the array elements in the same order, with the separator string between each element.

Changelog

Version Description
8.0.0 Passing the separator after the array is no longer supported.
7.4.0 Passing the separator after the array (i.e. using the legacy signature) has been deprecated.

Examples

Example #1 implode() example

<?php

$array
= ['lastname', 'email', 'phone'];
var_dump(implode(",", $array)); // string(20) "lastname,email,phone"

// Empty string when using an empty array:
var_dump(implode('hello', [])); // string(0) ""

// The separator is optional:
var_dump(implode(['a', 'b', 'c'])); // string(3) "abc"

?>

Notes

Note: This function is binary-safe.

See Also

add a note

User Contributed Notes 10 notes

up
363
houston_roadrunner at yahoo dot com
15 years ago
it should be noted that an array with one or no elements works fine. for example:

<?php
$a1
= array("1","2","3");
$a2 = array("a");
$a3 = array();

echo
"a1 is: '".implode("','",$a1)."'<br>";
echo
"a2 is: '".implode("','",$a2)."'<br>";
echo
"a3 is: '".implode("','",$a3)."'<br>";
?>

will produce:
===========
a1 is: '1','2','3'
a2 is: 'a'
a3 is: ''
up
96
ASchmidt at Anamera dot net
5 years ago
It's not obvious from the samples, if/how associative arrays are handled. The "implode" function acts on the array "values", disregarding any keys:

<?php
declare(strict_types=1);

$a = array( 'one','two','three' );
$b = array( '1st' => 'four', 'five', '3rd' => 'six' );

echo
implode( ',', $a ),'/', implode( ',', $b );
?>

outputs:
one,two,three/four,five,six
up
105
omar dot ajoue at kekanto dot com
11 years ago
Can also be used for building tags or complex lists, like the following:

<?php

$elements
= array('a', 'b', 'c');

echo
"<ul><li>" . implode("</li><li>", $elements) . "</li></ul>";

?>

This is just an example, you can create a lot more just finding the right glue! ;)
up
25
Felix Rauch
8 years ago
It might be worthwhile noting that the array supplied to implode() can contain objects, provided the objects implement the __toString() method.

Example:
<?php

class Foo
{
protected
$title;

public function
__construct($title)
{
$this->title = $title;
}

public function
__toString()
{
return
$this->title;
}
}

$array = [
new
Foo('foo'),
new
Foo('bar'),
new
Foo('qux')
];

echo
implode('; ', $array);
?>

will output:

foo; bar; qux
up
48
alexey dot klimko at gmail dot com
13 years ago
If you want to implode an array of booleans, you will get a strange result:
<?php
var_dump
(implode('',array(true, true, false, false, true)));
?>

Output:
string(3) "111"

TRUE became "1", FALSE became nothing.
up
11
Honk der Hase
4 years ago
If you want to implode an array as key-value pairs, this method comes in handy.
The third parameter is the symbol to be used between key and value.

<?php
function mapped_implode($glue, $array, $symbol = '=') {
return
implode($glue, array_map(
function(
$k, $v) use($symbol) {
return
$k . $symbol . $v;
},
array_keys($array),
array_values($array)
)
);
}

$arr = [
'x'=> 5,
'y'=> 7,
'z'=> 99,
'hello' => 'World',
7 => 'Foo',
];

echo
mapped_implode(', ', $arr, ' is ');

// output: x is 5, y is 7, z is 99, hello is World, 7 is Foo

?>
up
20
Anonymous
11 years ago
It may be worth noting that if you accidentally call implode on a string rather than an array, you do NOT get your string back, you get NULL:
<?php
var_dump
(implode(':', 'xxxxx'));
?>
returns
NULL

This threw me for a little while.
up
12
masterandujar
12 years ago
Even handier if you use the following:

<?php
$id_nums
= array(1,6,12,18,24);

$id_nums = implode(", ", $id_nums);

$sqlquery = "Select name,email,phone from usertable where user_id IN ($id_nums)";

// $sqlquery becomes "Select name,email,phone from usertable where user_id IN (1,6,12,18,24)"
?>

Be sure to escape/sanitize/use prepared statements if you get the ids from users.
up
5
Anonymous
9 years ago
null values are imploded too. You can use array_filter() to sort out null values.

<?php
$ar
= array("hello", null, "world");
print(
implode(',', $ar)); // hello,,world
print(implode(',', array_filter($ar, function($v){ return $v !== null; }))); // hello,world
?>
up
-1
biziclop
3 years ago
Sometimes it's necessary to add a string not just between the items, but before or after too, and proper handling of zero items is also needed.
In this case, simply prepending/appending the separator next to implode() is not enough, so I made this little helper function.

<?php

function wrap_implode( $array, $before = '', $after = '', $separator = '' ){
if( !
$array ) return '';
return
$before . implode("{$after}{$separator}{$before}", $array ) . $after;
}

echo
wrap_implode(['path','to','file.php'], '/');
// "/path/to/file.php"

$pattern = '#'. wrap_implode([4,2,2], '\d{', '}', '[-.]') .'#';
echo
$pattern, "\n"; // #\d{4}[-.]\d{2}[-.]\d{2}#
echo preg_replace( $pattern, '[REDACTED]', 'The UFO appeared between 2012-12-24 and 2013.01.06 every night.');
// 'The UFO appeared between [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] every night.

echo wrap_implode(['line','by','line'], '<b>', '</b>', '<br> ');
// <b>line</b><br> <b>by</b><br> <b>line</b>

echo wrap_implode( ['<a href="">Menu Item 1</a>', '<a href="">Menu Item 2</a>',],
"<li>", "</li>\n",
"<li> | </li>\n",
);
/*
<li><a href="">Link1</a></li>
<li> | </li>
<li><a href="">Link2</a></li>
*/

?>
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