concatenating array elements between first and last dynamically in php - php

Question

i have searched on the Internet but i couldn't find a solution, i have got a string which contain names(two, three,..) of a staff.
i want to extract from this string the first name, middle names and last name
sample string
$name = "Michael O. A. Ndanshau";
I am using explode function to get the names
$exp =explode(" ",$name);
print_r($exp);
array output
Array
(
[0] => Michael
[1] => O.
[2] => A.
[3] => Ndanshau
)
from above array i can get the first name and last name
$fname = $exp[0];
$lname = end($exp);
am not sure how to get the middle name as it may be dynamic.
my target is to concatenate what is between the first element and the last as the middle name
if a have n elements in the array
$middename = $exp[1]+..$exp[n-1];
any help please?

Answer 1

Get the first element of the array to get the first name and last element to get the last name. Get everything between for the middle name:
$firstname = $parts[0];
$middlename = implode(array_slice($parts, 1, -1));
$lastname = end($parts);
var_dump($firstname, $middlename, $lastname);
Output:
string(7) "Michael"
string(4) "O.A."
string(8) "Ndanshau"
Demo

Answer 2

if(count($arr)>2) {
$middleName = implode(' ',array_slice($arr,1,count($arr)-2));
}
else {
$middleName = '';
}

Answer 3

Maybe something like this. array_shift and array_pop modify the array so all that is left is the element(s) for the middle name:
$fname = array_shift($exp);
$lname = array_pop($exp);
middlename = implode(' ', $exp);
But you might want to check to make sure there are more than 2 elements up front, or at least 1 remaining:
$fname = array_shift($exp);
$lname = array_pop($exp);
if(count($exp) >= 1) {
middlename = implode(' ', $exp);
}
Or something similar.