Problems with explode [closed]

Question

I have a text box in the admin area for entering the names of categories. Right now, this is what is in it

events homepage

Just like that above. Two categories separated by a space. So now I am trying to get the categories from the database and that is done this way. (I am using SMOF framework)

 echo $data['exclude_categories'];

If I do the above, it will echo out

 events homepage

So then I am trying to get a - sign and a comma placed between each category like so

 //looping through my key to get the values
 $string = explode(" ", $data['exclude_categories'] );
 foreach($string as $cat) {

 //concatenating my values into one string
 $string .= '-' .$cat.",";
 }
 echo $data['exclude_categories']; //for testing purposes
 //trimming the trailing comma from the string
 $string = substr($string, 0, -1); // Delete the last character

My problem is that I get this "Array-events,-homepage" and I don't know why the Array is there

Answer 1

It's because you've created an array with explode and assigned it to $string, then you're appending strings onto it when you use the .= concatenation operator within your foreach loop.

here's a simpler method:

$string = '-' . implode( ',-', explode( ' ', $data['exclude_categories'] ) );