--- title: Printing Lists | daily.dev description: A short technique note on printing comma-separated lists: instead of printing the separator after each element and trimming the trailing one, print the comma... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/printing-lists-ssthuybdi twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Printing Lists | daily.dev og:description: A short technique note on printing comma-separated lists: instead of printing the separator after each element and trimming the trailing one, print the comma... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/printing-lists-ssthuybdi og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/sSThUYbDI.png og:image:alt: Printing Lists og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- [matklad](https://daily.dev/sources/matklad) [Read post](https://api.daily.dev/r/sSThUYbDI) # [Printing Lists](https://api.daily.dev/r/sSThUYbDI "Go to post") A short technique note on printing comma-separated lists: instead of printing the separator after each element and trimming the trailing one, print the comma before each element except the first. This avoids special-casing the last item and results in cleaner code. Aug 14•1m read time•From [matklad.github.io](https://api.daily.dev/r/sSThUYbDI "matklad.github.io") [](https://api.daily.dev/r/sSThUYbDI "Go to post") Questions this post answers What's a clean way to print a comma-separated list without a trailing comma? Print the comma before each element instead of after it, skipping the comma only for the first element. This avoids needing to detect the last element or trim a trailing separator, resulting in simpler loop code that handles the common case of joining items with a delimiter. Developers refining everyday formatting idioms often browse similar coding tips on daily.dev. 73 Impressions Comment Bookmark Copy Share your thoughtsPost [](https://daily.dev/sources/matklad) [matklad](https://daily.dev/sources/matklad "https://daily.dev/sources/matklad") Matthias Noback's expertise in PHP and domain-driven design (DDD) offers readers insights into buil... 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