Convert comma separated values to array in PHP

A short snippet you can use:

/**
 * @param $string - Input string to convert to array
 * @param string $separator - Separator to separate by (default: ,)
 *
 * @return array
 */
function comma_separated_to_array($string, $separator = ',')
{
  //Explode on comma
  $vals = explode($separator, $string);

  //Trim whitespace
  foreach($vals as $key => $val) {
    $vals[$key] = trim($val);
  }
  //Return empty array if no items found
  //http://php.net/manual/en/function.explode.php#114273
  return array_diff($vals, array(""));
}

Usage:

$array_one = comma_separated_to_array("foo,bar,baz");
$array_two = comma_separated_to_array("1, 2, 3 ");

Result:

array('foo','bar','baz');
array('1','2','3');