PHP foreach loop - php

Question

I need to transfer the values from a PHP array into a JavaScript array so that it can be used in my application, I have managed to get up to this:
var Descriptions = array(<?php
foreach ($tasks as $task) {
$ID = $task['ID'];
$description = $task['description'];
echo $ID . "[" . $description . "]" . ",";
}
?>);
and it works fine except for one thing: I dont know how to tell PHP to not put a comma after the last array value. The extra comma is causing a syntax error so it breaks my code.
Thanks in advance for any ideas,
RayQuang

Answer 1

The quick and dirty way:
for($i = 0, $c = count($tasks); $i < $c; $i++) {
$task = $tasks[$i];
...
echo $ID . "[" . $description . "]" . (($i != $c-1) ? "," : '');
}
There are obviously other ways of accomplishing this, one way would be to build up a string and then use the trim() function:
$tasks_str = '';
foreach(...) {
...
$tasks_str .= ...
}
echo trim($tasks_str, ',');
Or, (my favorite), you could build up an array and then use implode on it:
$tasks_array = array();
foreach(...) {
...
$tasks_array[] = ...
}
echo implode(',', $tasks_array);

Answer 2

don't try to build it manually, use json_encode

Answer 3

var Descriptions = <?=json_encode($tasks);?>;

Answer 4

var DescriptionsString = <?php
foreach ($tasks as $task) {
$ID = $task['ID'];
$description = $task['description'];
echo $ID . "[" . $description . "]" . ",";
}
?>;
var Descriptions = DescriptionsString.split(',');

Answer 5

try,
var Descriptions = array(<?php
$str = '';
foreach ($tasks as $task) {
$ID = $task['ID'];
$description = $task['description'];
$str .= $ID . "[" . $description . "]" . ",";
}
echo trim($str,',');
?>);

Answer 6

Not one to miss out on a trend:
$out = array();
foreach ($tasks as $task) {
$ID = $task['ID'];
$description = $task['description'];
$out[] = $ID . "[" . $description . "]";
}
echo implode(',', $out);
Using implode().