John Davidson

Message:

I am having difficulty passing array as an argument. I am getting an error string to array conversion. the $optional variable sometimes need to get a string as a parameter and sometimes an array. Please check my code below. Many Thanks

  function getLists($str, array $items,$optional=null, ){



        $items1 = array_map(function($x) use ($optional) { return "$x $optional"; }, $items);

        $itemsCount = count($items1);

        $sentence = '';

        if ($itemsCount == 1) {

            $sentence = $items[0] . '.';

        } else {

            if($optional == null)

            {

                $partial = array_slice($items, 0, $itemsCount-1);

                $sentence = implode(', ', $partial) . ' and ' . $items[$itemsCount-1]; 



            }

            if(is_string($optional))

            {

                $partial = array_slice($items1, 0, $itemsCount-1);

                $sentence =   implode(', ', $partial). ' and ' . $items1[$itemsCount-1];

            }

        else

        {

            $partial = array_slice($items1, 0, $itemsCount-1);

            $sentence =   implode(', ', $partial). ' and ' . $items1[$itemsCount-1];

        }              

        }

                    

        return $str.': '.$sentence.'.';

    }

Here are what I am trying to do, the following two are working correctly

getList("What do you want",array("chocolate","icecream","shake"));

getList("Ice Cream has",array("chocolate","vanilla","mango"),"flavour");

But when I replace try to pass [] as parameter then I got an error array to string conversion warning

getList("The color required",array("green","red","blue"),['chilli','onion','berry']);

So when I pass this parameter and my output should be like:
I am not getting the correct output that should be like:

The color required: green chilli,red onion and blue berry.

Instead I am getting:

The color required: green Array, red Array and blue Array.

---

My Answer:
To avoid the warning array to string conversion, you can modify your function to handle both string and array inputs for the $optional parameter. Here's an updated version of your function:

php
function getLists($str, array $items, $optional = null) {
$items1 = array_map(function($x) use ($optional) {
if (is_array($optional)) {
$optionalValue = array_shift($optional);
return "$x $optionalValue";
} else {
return "$x $optional";
}
}, $items);

$itemsCount = count($items1);
$sentence = '';

if ($itemsCount == 1) {
$sentence = $items[0] . '.';
} else {
$partial = array_slice($items1, 0, $itemsCount-1);
$sentence = implode(', ', $partial) . ' and ' . $items1[$itemsCount-1];
}

return $str . ': ' . $sentence . '.';
}


With this updated function, you can pass either a string or an array as the $optional parameter. If an array is passed, the function will use the first value from the array for each item in the $items array. Otherwise, it will use the single string value provided.

Now you can call the function like this:
php
getList("What do you want", array("chocolate", "icecream", "shake"));
getList("Ice Cream has", array("chocolate", "vanilla", "mango"), "flavour");
getList("The color required", array("green", "red", "blue"), ['chilli', 'onion', 'berry']);


This should give you the desired output without any warning about array to string conversion.