how to put a limit on a while mysql_array?

Question

//check which faction members are online
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM ".TBL_ACTIVE_USERS." 
WHERE faction=$userfaction_id ORDER BY timestamp DESC,username");
//no '' around var as it is an integer, so php doesn't expeect it to be string
$numrows = mysql_numrows($sql);//gets number of members online
if($numrows == 1){ echo 'You are the only faction member online'; }
else{
while($online = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
echo '<a href="#" class="light_grey">'.$online['username'].'</a>';
echo ',&nbsp;';
}//loops round all online users
//echoing their usernames
}

The above code works fine if only one member is online. The problem is really aesthetic reasons.

If more than one member is online, the query displays:

Administrator, System,

I was wondering how I would make it so on the last result (last member online by the while(){} clause) I could remove the comma? Is there a way of limiting the while statement to $numrows-1 or something along those lines? Then echoing the last user without the comma and space after their name?

Answer 1

One elegant way is to use an array and implode().

$elements = array();

while($online = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
  array_push ($elements, '<a href="#" class="light_grey">'.
                         $online['username'].'</a>');
}

echo implode(",&nbsp;", $elements);

Answer 2

<?php

$i = 0;
while{

    if($i > $numrows)
    {
        echo ',&nbsp;';
    }

$i++;
}

Answer 3

implode is one way to do it, as Pekka showed, one other way is to do it like this:

$first = true;
while($online = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
  if (!$first) {
      echo ', ';
      $first = false;
  }
  echo '<a href="#" class="light_grey">',$online['username'],'</a>';
}

Should be a bit more efficient than the implode way if there's a lot of online members, due to not having to construct a temporary array.