JSTL: remove last item from array

Question

Was wondering if it's possible to remove the last item from an array using JSTL? Currently I'm using c:url to append parameters (from an array) to a hyperlink. I want to be able to remove the last parameter as well...

Here is the code for the c:url to append parameters

 <c:url value="search" var="url">
    <c:param name="q" value="${q}"/>
    <c:forEach var="field" items="${fq}">
        <c:param name="fq" value="${field}"/>
    </c:forEach>
</c:url>

Answer 1

No, that's not possible. You can't manipulate arrays in JSTL. You can at highest set the last item to null , but that won't change the array's length.

In your particular case there's however another way: you can check if you're currently iterating over the last array item by checking LoopTagStatus#isLast() and then just skip the item altogether in <c:param>

<c:url value="search" var="url">
    <c:param name="q" value="${q}"/>
    <c:forEach var="field" items="${fq}" varStatus="loop">
        <c:if test="${not loop.last}">
            <c:param name="fq" value="${field}"/>
        </c:if>
    </c:forEach>
</c:url>

Note that I removed the fn:length() check because that's unnecessary. The <c:forEach> already won't iterate if there are no items.