Question

My tags are showing in the inner foreach loop in the right order.

I would like to comma separate them but am not sure how.

Is there a better way to display my tags without using the second foreach loop?

$people = array();

while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($rs, MYSQLI_ASSOC)){
       if(!isset($people[$row["id"]])){
            $people[$row["id"]]["id"] = $row["id"];
            $people[$row["id"]]["tag"] = $row["tag"];
            $people[$row["id"]]["tags"] = array();
       }
     array_push($people[$row["id"]]["tags"],  array("id"=>$row["tags_id"],"tag_name"=>$row["tag"]));
}

foreach($people as $pid=>$p){

    echo "(#{$p['id']}) ";

     foreach($p["tags"] as $tid=>$t){
     echo "<a href='#'>{$t['tag_name']}</a> ";   
     }

       echo "<br><br>";
}

Answer 1

You don’t need to use array_push, since you’re only adding one element to the array. You can save the overhead of calling a function by using the syntax:

$people[ $row["id"] ]["tags"][] = array(...);

My answer depends on the necessity of the variables saved from the database. In your supplied code, you’re only using the id and tag values from the database in the nested foreach loops. If this is this case, then you can simplify your arrays so you can use implode() on a new tags array. I have not tested this since I do not have your database schema, but I believe it will work.

<?php
$people = array();
$tags = array();

while( ($row = mysqli_fetch_array( $rs, MYSQLI_ASSOC)))
{
    if( !isset( $people[$row['id']]))
    {
        $people[ $row['id'] ] = array( 'id' => $row['id'], 'tag' => $row['tag']);
        $tags[ $row['id'] ] = array();
    }
    $tags[ $row['id'] ][] = $row['tag'];
}

foreach( $people as $pid => $p)
{
    echo "(#{$p['id']}) ";
    echo '<a href="#">' . implode( '</a><a href="#">', $tags[ $p['id'] ])  . '</a>';
    echo '<br /><br />';
}