You can pop last item and then join it with the text:
$yourArray = ('a', 'b', 'c');
$lastItem = array_pop($yourArray); // c
$text = implode(', ', $yourArray); // a, b
$text .= ' and '.$lastItem; // a, b and c
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.
It's faster then deceze's solution and works with huge arrays (1M+ elements). The only flaw of both solutions is a poor interaction with a number 0 in a less then three elements arrays becouse of array_filter use.
echo implode(' and ', array_filter(array_reverse(array_merge(array(array_pop($array)), array(implode(', ',$array))))));
I just coded this based on the suggestions on this page. I left in my pseudo-code in the comments in case anyone needed it. My code differs from others here as it handles different-sized arrays differently and uses the Oxford comma notation for lists of three or more.
/**
* Create a comma separated list of items using the Oxford comma notation. A
* single item returns just that item. 2 array elements returns the items
* separated by "and". 3 or more items return the comma separated list.
*
* @param array $items Array of strings to list
* @return string List of items joined by comma using Oxford comma notation
*/
function _createOxfordCommaList($items) {
if (count($items) == 1) {
// return the single name
return array_pop($items);
}
elseif (count($items) == 2) {
// return array joined with "and"
return implode(" and ", $items);
}
else {
// pull of the last item
$last = array_pop($items);
// join remaining list with commas
$list = implode(", ", $items);
// add the last item back using ", and"
$list .= ", and " . $last;
return $list;
}
}
This is quite old at this point, but I figured it can't hurt to add my solution to the pile. It's a bit more code than other solutions, but I'm okay with that.
I wanted something with a bit of flexibility, so I created a utility method that allows for setting what the final separator should be (so you could use an ampersand, for instance) and whether or not to use an Oxford comma. It also properly handles lists with 0, 1, and 2 items (something quite a few of the answers here do not do)
$androidVersions = ['Donut', 'Eclair', 'Froyo', 'Gingerbread', 'Honeycomb', 'Ice Cream Sandwich', 'Jellybean', 'Kit Kat', 'Lollipop', 'Marshmallow'];
echo joinListWithFinalSeparator(array_slice($androidVersions, 0, 1)); // Donut
echo joinListWithFinalSeparator(array_slice($androidVersions, 0, 2)); // Donut and Eclair
echo joinListWithFinalSeparator($androidVersions); // Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jellybean, Kit Kat, Lollipop, and Marshmallow
echo joinListWithFinalSeparator($androidVersions, '&', false); // Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jellybean, Kit Kat, Lollipop & Marshmallow
function joinListWithFinalSeparator(array $arr, $lastSeparator = 'and', $oxfordComma = true) {
if (count($arr) > 1) {
return sprintf(
'%s%s %s %s',
implode(', ', array_slice($arr, 0, -1)),
$oxfordComma && count($arr) > 2 ? ',':'',
$lastSeparator ?: '',
array_pop($arr)
);
}
// not a fan of this, but it's the simplest way to return a string from an array of 0-1 items without warnings
return implode('', $arr);
}
OK, so this is getting pretty old, but I have to say I reckon most of the answers are very inefficient with multiple implodes or array merges and stuff like that, all far more complex than necessary IMO.
Another, although slightly more verbose, solution I came up with. In my situation, I wanted to make the words in the array plural, so this will add an "s" to the end of each item (unless the word already ends in 's':
$models = array("F150","Express","CR-V","Rav4","Silverado");
foreach($models as $k=>$model){
echo $model;
if(!preg_match("/s|S$/",$model))
echo 's'; // add S to end (if it doesn't already end in S)
if(isset($models[$k+1])) { // if there is another after this one.
echo ", ";
if(!isset($models[$k+2]))
echo "and "; // If this is next-to-last, add ", and"
}
}
}