5 Ways To Convert Array To String In PHP

Welcome to a beginner’s tutorial on how to convert an array to a string in PHP. So you need to quickly create a string from data in an array?

That covers the basics, but just how does each one of them work? Need more actual examples? Read on!

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Source code on GitHub Gist

Just click on “download zip” or do a git clone. I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

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TUTORIAL VIDEO

 

1) IMPLODE FUNCTION

// (A) THE ARRAY
$arr = ["Red", "Green", "Blue"];

// (B) NO SEPARATOR - SIMPLY JOIN ALL ELEMENTS
$str = implode($arr);
echo $str; // RedGreenBlue

// (C) SEPARATOR SPECIFIED
$str = implode(", ", $arr);
echo $str; // Red, Green, Blue

This should be pretty easy to understand. The implode() function simply takes an array and combines all the elements into a flat string. Just remember to specify a SEPARATOR, or all the elements will be smushed into a string without any spaces.

 

 

2) ARRAY REDUCE

// (A) REDUCTION FUNCTION
function reduction ($carry, $item) {
  if ($item !="Green") { $carry .= "$item, "; }
  return $carry;
}
 
// (B) THE ARRAY
$arr = ["Red", "Green", "Blue"];
 
// (C) REDUCE ARRAY
$str = array_reduce($arr, "reduction");
$str = substr($str, 0, -2);
echo $str; // Red, Blue

The usage of the array_reduce() function may not obvious at the first glance, but the general idea is to reduce an array down to a single string – By using a given custom REDUCTION function – In this one, we can pretty much set any rules, do any “special processing”.

 

 

3) MANUAL LOOP

// (A) THE ARRAY
$arr = ["Red", "Green", "Blue"];
 
// (B) MANUAL LOOP & BUILD STRING
$str = "";
foreach ($arr as $item) { $str .= "$item, "; }
$str = substr($str, 0, -2);
echo $str; // Red, Green, Blue

Well, this should be pretty self-explanatory. Just loop through an array, and create a string manually.

 

4) JSON ENCODE

// (A) THE ARRAY
$arr = ["Red", "Green", "Blue"];
 
// (B) JSON ENCODE ARRAY
$str = json_encode($arr);
echo $str; // ["Red","Green","Blue"]

For the beginners, JSON (Javascript Object Notation) in simple terms, is to convert an array into an equivalent data string – Very handy if you want to pass an array from Javascript to PHP (or vice-versa). In PHP, we use json_encode() to turn an array into a string, and json_decode() to turn the string back to an array.

 

 

5) SERIALIZE

// (A) THE ARRAY
$arr = ["Red", "Green", "Blue"];
 
// (B) PHP SERIALIZED ARRAY
$str = serialize($arr);
echo $str; // a:3:{i:0;s:3:"Red";i:1;s:5:"Green";i:2;s:4:"Blue";}

Finally, this is PHP’s “version of JSON encode”. Yep, the serialize() function can pretty much turn any array, object, function, and whatever into a string. Very convenient if you want to store something in the database, and retrieve it for later use.

 

 

 

SUMMARY

Function	Description	Reference Link
implode(SEPARATOR, ARRAY)	“Glues” an array together, elements separated with the defined SEPARATOR.	Click Here
array_reduce(ARRAY, FUNCTION)	Reduces the specified ARRAY down into a single string, using the rules provided in the custom FUNCTION.	Click Here
json_encode(ARRAY)	Encodes the given array into a JSON string.	Click Here
serialize(ARRAY)	Serializes a given array, object, function into a string.	Click Here