PHP display comma separated GROUP_CONCAT values separately - php

Question

This question is with reference to my previous question posted here PHP display results equivalent to comma separated values in the database.
I nearly solved the problem. Now I am stuck somewhere else which if solved my issue will be solved.
The problem is:
Please have a look at this code first
<div class="ads-container">
<?php
$cat = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM ads_category");
$cat-> execute();
$i = 0;
while($s = $cat->fetch()){
$ads = $pdo->prepare("SELECT *, GROUP_CONCAT(memberships.mbs_color) FROM advertisements
INNER JOIN memberships ON FIND_IN_SET(memberships.mbs_id, advertisements.ad_memberships)
LEFT JOIN ads_category ON advertisements.ad_category = ads_category.ac_id
WHERE ad_credits >= ac_credits AND ad_category = :cat AND ad_status = 'active'
GROUP BY advertisements.ad_id");
$ads-> bindValue(':cat', $s['ac_id']);
$ads-> execute();
while($a = $ads->fetch()){ extract($a);
?>
<div class="" <?php if($i++ != 0){ echo "style='margin-top: 30px'"; } ?>>
<i class="fa fa-bullhorn" aria-hidden="true"></i> <?php echo $ac_category; ?>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-4">
<div class="adcover">
<div class="ad-title">
<?php echo $ad_title; ?>
</div>
<div class="ad-footer-two"> <?php echo $a['GROUP_CONCAT(memberships.mbs_color)']; // this is giving me the values comma separated perfectly ?>
<span class="membership-indicator" style="background: <?php echo $mbs_color; ?>; margin-top: 4px; margin-left: 5px"></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<?php } } ?>
</div>
Now the problem is when I echo <?php echo $a['GROUP_CONCAT(memberships.mbs_color)']; ?> I get the comma separed color values perfectly. But I want to display it as a color not as a word in <span class="membership-incdicator"></span> as exactly as in https://prnt.sc/hvj91s. So, how can I do that? Do I have to use foreach() function here? If yes then please tell me how to write that code. If not, then please tell me how to accomplish this.

Answer 1

This whole thing looks very messy, but explode the list and loop:
$mbs_colors = explode(',', $a['GROUP_CONCAT(memberships.mbs_color)']);
foreach($mbs_colors as $color) {
echo '<span class="membership-indicator" style="background: ' . $color . '; margin-top: 4px; margin-left: 5px"></span>';
}
Also, you can use an alias: SELECT *, GROUP_CONCAT(memberships.mbs_color) AS colors and then use: $a['colors'].
This does beg the question; why GROUP_CONCAT then? I'm not sure but there must be a better query.