How to not display a comma at end of a sentence.

[new7media]

I have articles in a database, some of them have more than one author. The problem: how do I display the author names so that the last name displayed doesn't have a comma after it? So:

This Is The Article Title
by Author Name, Author Name, Author Name

I do not want (but can't figure out how not to get it):

This Is The Article Title
by Author Name, Author Name, Author Name,

Thinking this may be a for loop? but can't figure out how to set it up?

Thanks for your help!

[devinemke]

How exactly are the authors stored in the db? All in one record in the article table? Like "Joe Smith, Jane Doe, Joe Blow". Or as separate records that all relate to a common article?

If you have several authors writing several articles, I would suggest that you store authors in a one table, the articles in another and have a third that maps them to together (since you have a "many to many" relationship between authors and articles).

Then you can pull all of the authors related to a single article into an array and use the implode() function to comma separate them.

[new7media]

I have the authors in their own table and the articles in another table. I have a field in the articles table labelled "author_id".

When someone creates an article they select from a drop-down menu of authors and can select as many names as they need.

The author IDs are saved to the article table as comma-separated number values. I am using implode to get to the authors and display them along with the article that they have written.

I don't have any problem getting the corresponding author names out of the author table. I can display them so that they show up in the "by" line and separate each name with a comma. But how to say in PHP "if this is the last author name to display for this article, don't print a comma after the name"?

Thanks for your help!

[devinemke]

If you simply want to hack off a final comma from a string:

$string = 'John Doe, Jane Smith, Mike Jones,';
if (substr ($string, - 1) == ',')
{
$string = substr ($string, 0, strlen ($string) - 1);
}
echo $string

[Mce]

I'm assuming that you're exploding into an array then looping through the array to output the names.
If that's the case all you have to do is output the comma at the top of the loop before the name.
And set a var to be a flag for the first pass through the loop so that you can not output the comma the first time around.

$siz = sizeof($names[]);
$fisrtpass = 0;
$namestr = "";
for($i=0;$i<$siz;$i++) {
if($firstpass == 0) $cma = ", "; else $cma = "";
$namestr .= "$cma$names[$i]";
}
echo $namestr;

Hope this helps...

-Mce

[new7media]

I had a feeling this was a for loop. Thank you! and you're right. But I still have a (numbskull - literally) problem.

Here's how I have things set up.

Author Table Fields:
author_id | first_name | last_name

Article Table Fields:
article_id | title | full_story | author_id

So, when someone submits a story the tables are linked together by the author_id field in the Article table.

Once I get the article information from the database:

$result = (SELECT * FROM articles WHERE article_id = $article_id, $db);

I then have the author_id's which (if more than one) are comma-separated, giving me data in that field that looks like 7,23,14 for example. To get at this I do the following:

$author_id = explode(",", $author_id);
foreach($author_id as $author) {
$result_author = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM authors WHERE author_id = $author", $db);
$row_count_author = mysql_num_rows($result_author);
if ($row_count_author == 0) {
echo ("");
} else {
while ($row_author = mysql_fetch_array($result_author)) {
$editor_first_name = $row_author["first_name"];
$editor_last_name = $row_author["last_name"];
$editor = $editor_first_name.' '.$editor_last_name;
echo ("$editor,");
}
}
}
So now I would see these authors (for example):

Harry Potter, Tina Turner, Bill Clinton, <-- the dreaded trailing comma!

I tried the for loop that you provided -- thanks for that! -- but I'm a little confused (and a lot tired of this code problem!) as to what your "names[]" array refers to in my code. I think with that cleared up I can get this thing working.

Thanks so much for all of your help. And apologies that I didn't post what I had coded previously.

[Mce]

The $names[] was just to imply an array of names with your code I'd do it slightly differently but basically the same...see below...

$firstpass = 0;
$author_id = explode(",", $author_id);
foreach($author_id as $author) {
$result_author = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM authors WHERE author_id = $author", $db);
$row_count_author = mysql_num_rows($result_author);
if ($row_count_author == 0) {
echo ("");
} else {
while ($row_author = mysql_fetch_array($result_author)) {
if($firstpass == 0) $cma = ""; else $cma = ", ";
$editor_first_name = $row_author["first_name"];
$editor_last_name = $row_author["last_name"];
$editor = $editor_first_name.' '.$editor_last_name;
echo $cma.$editor;
$firstpass = "NO";
}
}
}

[new7media]

I just tried both of your code snippets. The second one you supplied, that works within the code I posted, didn't work at all - no commas inserted, or spaces.

When I go with the first snippet you posted, I get closer. Here's your code, and the display I get:

$siz = sizeof($result_author);
$firstpass = 0;
$namestr = "";
for($i=0; $i < $siz; $i++) {
if ($firstpass == 0) {
$cma = ", ";
} else {
$cma = "";
}
$namestr = "$cma$editor";
}

echo ("$namestr\n");

This displays:

, Harry Potter , Tina Turner , Bill Clinton

Not sure how to get rid of that first comma, or the extra space in front of the comma that shows between the names?

Thanks again for your help with this!

[Mce]

$siz = sizeof($result_author);
$firstpass = 0;
$namestr = "";
for($i=0; $i < $siz; $i++) {
if ($firstpass == 0) {
$cma = ", ";
} else {
$cma = "";
}
$editor = trim($editor);
$namestr = "$cma$editor";
}

echo ("$namestr\n");

I didn't see where $editor is being defined, but I used it from your sample to maintain consistency.
The trim() should take care of any whitespace.

-Mce

Originally posted by new7media
I just tried both of your code snippets. The second one you supplied, that works within the code I posted, didn't work at all - no commas inserted, or spaces.

When I go with the first snippet you posted, I get closer. Here's your code, and the display I get:


$siz = sizeof($result_author);
$firstpass = 0;
$namestr = "";
for($i=0; $i < $siz; $i++) {
if ($firstpass == 0) {
$cma = ", ";
} else {
$cma = "";
}
$namestr = "$cma$editor";
}

echo ("$namestr\n");

This displays:

, Harry Potter , Tina Turner , Bill Clinton

Not sure how to get rid of that first comma, or the extra space in front of the comma that shows between the names?

Thanks again for your help with this!

[new7media]

Hi MCE -

Thanks for all of your help with this. I'm going to play with the snippet you supplied. I'm still getting the comma in front of $namestr or after it, depending on where I place the $cma variable (eg., $namestr = "$editor$cma"; vs. $namestr = "$cma$editor"; ). I know the answer is glaring out at me from the monitor right now. Gonna give it another go in a bit, when I'm not so beat up by this $&% comma.

Thanks thanks thanks for your help and patience!

[Mce]

You know I didn't even see the order change in the snippet you posted...Sorry I should have seen that....
the check on $firstpass if it is zero should output an empty string (it should only have the comma and space if $firstpass isn't 0) and the $cma var should be before the $editor var.

-Mce

[intenz]

Try...

while($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($query))
{
	$foo .= ' ' . $myrow['author'] . ','
}
if(substr($foo,0,-1) == ',')
	$string = substr($foo,0,strlen($foo)-1);