Get first value of comma separated string

Question

I'm looking for the quickest/shortest way to get the first value from comma separated string, in-line.

The best I can do is

$string = 'a,b,c,d';
echo "The first thing is " . end(array_reverse(explode(',', $string))) . ".";

but I feel that's excessive and redundant. Is there a better way?

Halcyon · Answer 1 · 2012-05-10T19:38:41.787

9

list($first) = explode(',', 'a,b,c,d');
var_dump($first);  // a

probably works :)

In PHP 6.0 you will be able to simply:

$first = explode(',', 'a,b,c,d')[0];

But this is a syntax error in 5.x and lower

edited May 10 '12 at 19:38

answered May 10 '12 at 19:33

Halcyon

Isn't `list()` a bit excessive in this case? – Jeroen May 10 '12 at 19:35
My option seems more logical/simpler, but maybe that's just me ;) – Jeroen May 10 '12 at 19:41
In your first solution `list()` returns an array. I like your second solution though. Wish it worked in earlier versions. – Steve Robbins May 10 '12 at 19:44
What do you mean? `list()` doesn't return anything, it's not a function. It's on the _left_ side of the assignment. – Halcyon May 10 '12 at 19:50
1

`literal dereferencing` is announced in PHP 5.5 so doesn't have any syntactical error. – revo Jun 01 '14 at 08:23
The $first = explode(',', 'a,b,c,d')[0]; seems the simplest and direct – ypdev19 Sep 14 '22 at 23:27

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered May 12 '14 at 14:48

8

Steve

It's little bit shorter

strtok('a,b,c,d', ",")

answered May 12 '14 at 14:48

Oleg Matei

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered May 10 '12 at 19:57

6

How about

echo reset(explode(',', 'a,b,c,d'))

answered May 10 '12 at 19:57

itsmeee

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered May 10 '12 at 19:32

4

<?php    
$array = explode(',', 'a,b,c,d');
$first = $array [0];

answered May 10 '12 at 19:32

Jeroen

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 18 '20 at 10:41

1

        $int = substr($string,0,strpos($string,","));

answered Aug 18 '20 at 10:41

kamran

2

Please provide some detail about what are you doing for further detail! – Farbod Ahmadian Aug 18 '20 at 11:21
Code-only answers are discouraged on Stack Overflow because they don't explain how it solves the problem. Please edit your answer to explain what this code does and how it answers the question, so that it is useful to the OP as well as other users also with similar issues. – FluffyKitten Aug 18 '20 at 17:49

5 Answers5