return group_concat data as array

Question

I want to return values I retrieve from the db using group_concat as an array of data. Is it possible to do this in the mysql query? Or do I need to explode the data into an array?

GROUP_CONCAT(sh.hold_id) as holds

returns this

[holds] => 3,4

I want it to return:

[holds] => array(3,4)

Answer 1

If you need to do it on the MySQL level, and then you may probably parse it to an object. You can do the following

SELECT CONCAT("[", GROUP_CONCAT(category.name), "]") AS categories
From categories

Answer 2

As I said in my comment: you need to explode the data into an array, using php code like this:

$holds = explode(',', $holds);

because mysql has no concept of array-type for data.

Answer 3

MySQL has no concept of arrays. Therefore it is not able to return an array. It is up to your processing code (here the php scripts) to convert the concatenated notation into a php array.