How can I implode an array while skipping empty ar

Question

Perl's join() ignores (skips) empty array values; PHP's implode() does not appear to.

Suppose I have an array:

$array = array('one', '', '', 'four', '', 'six');
implode('-', $array);

yields:

one---four--six

instead of (IMHO the preferable):

one-four-six

Any other built-ins with the behaviour I'm looking for? Or is it going to be a custom jobbie?

Answer 1

Based on what I can find, I'd say chances are, there isn't really any way to use a PHP built in for that. But you could probably do something along the lines of this:

function implode_skip_empty($glue,$arr) {
      $ret = "";
      $len = sizeof($arr);
      for($i=0;$i<$len;$i++) {
          $val = $arr[$i];    
          if($val == "") {
              continue;
          } else {
            $ret .= $arr.($i+1==$len)?"":$glue;
          }
      }
      return $ret;
}

Answer 2

array_fileter() seems to be the accepted way here, and is probably still the most robust answer tbh.

However, the following will also work if you can guarantee that the "glue" character doesn't already exist in the strings of each array element (which would be a given under most practical circumstances -- otherwise you wouldn't be able to distinguish the glue from the actual data in the array):

$array = array('one', '', '', 'four', '', 'six');
$str   = implode('-', $array);
$str   = preg_replace ('/(-)+/', '\1', $str);