How to cast array elements to strings in PHP?

Question

If I have a array with objects:

$a = array($objA, $objB);

(each object has a __toString()-method)

How can I cast all array elements to string so that array $a contains no more objects but their string representation? Is there a one-liner or do I have to manually loop through the array?

Reba

have you looked at php.net/array_map ? – Algetic

see - #12682732 – Cupid

@RohitSuthar : your linked answer creates an array out of a string. This question was about converting an array of objects to an array of their string representation. – Reba

In case you want to debug, you might want to see #139974 – Fluffy

Answer 1

A one-liner:

$a = array_map('strval', $a);
// strval is a callback function

See PHP DOCS:

array_map

strval

Pernambuco

Can also be called like return array_map(fn ($item) => strval($item), $items); if you'd rather not reference the function 'strval' as a string. – Panne

Answer 2

Alix Axel has the nicest answer. You can also apply anything to the array though with array_map like...

//All your objects to string.
$a = array_map(function($o){return (string)$o;}, $a);
//All your objects to string with exclamation marks!!!
$a = array_map(function($o){return (string)$o."!!!";}, $a);

Enjoy

Mescal

Answer 3

Are you looking for implode?

$array = array('lastname', 'email', 'phone');

$comma_separated = implode(",", $array);

echo $comma_separated; // lastname,email,phone

Whitby

No, because my array consists of objects, not strings. And the result should be an array and not an imploded string. – Reba

Answer 4

Not tested, but something like this should do it?

foreach($a as $key => $value) {
    $new_arr[$key]=$value->__toString();
}
$a=$new_arr;

Brownson

read the question, it says "is there a one-liner or do I have to manually loop..." :) – Algetic

Yes, and as I suggested in the comment to Alix's post I would have offered his solution had I have known about it. – Brownson

Answer 5

I can't test it right now, but can you check what happens when you implode() such an array? The _toString should be invoked.

Fronia

It does. Simple implode($array) will do. – Backwater

@Gordon: It'll merge all the strings in one though, I think the OP wants to keep the __toString() generated strings in the corresponding array elements. – Pernambuco

Right, I want the array to be still intact and only the elements in it casted to string. – Reba

@Alix Oh, I see. Yes. Then implode won't do. – Backwater

explode(',', implode(',' $array)) then, perhaps? Although, the proposed array_map would be more elegant, this approach could be done like this, couldn't it? – Wandering

@nikc: Not if the generated __toString() contains ,. – Pernambuco

Answer 6

$str1 = "pankaj";
$str2 = array("sam",'pankaj',"hello");
function Search($x ,$y){
    $search = $x;
    $arr = $y;
 foreach($y as $key => $value){
    $str = array_search($x, $y);
    if($str == $key){
    echo $key ."=>".$value;
    echo "<br>".gettype($value);
  }
 }
}
Search($str1 ,$str2);

Stephenstephenie

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Answer 7

Is there any reason why you can't do the following?

$a = array(
    (string) $objA,
    (string) $objB,
);

Carola

Yes, because actually I don't know how many elements there are in the array. The example above was just reduced to two elements to make it more clear. – Reba