I want to return values I retrieve from the db using group_concat as an array of data. Is it possible to do this in the mysql query? Or do I need to explode the data into an array?
GROUP_CONCAT(sh.hold_id) as holds
returns this
[holds] => 3,4
I want it to return:
[holds] => array(3,4)
If you need to do it on the MySQL level, and then you may probably parse it to an object. You can do the following
SELECT CONCAT("[", GROUP_CONCAT(category.name), "]") AS categories
From categories
This is possible since MySQL 5.7.22 using the JSON_ARRAYAGG() method
Read more: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/aggregate-functions.html#function_json-arrayagg
Example:
SELECT JSON_ARRAYAGG(category.slug) as categories From categories
It is possible to return mysql JSON array like so,
json_array(GROUP_CONCAT(sh.hold_id)) as holds
Refer docs for further info.