How can I join elements of an array in Bash?

Question

If I have an array like this in Bash:

FOO=( a b c )

How do I join the elements with commas? For example, producing a,b,c.

Answer 1

Surprisingly my solution is not yet given :) This is the simplest way for me. It doesn't need a function:

IFS=, eval 'joined="${foo[*]}"'

Note: This solution was observed to work well in non-POSIX mode. In POSIX mode, the elements are still joined properly, but IFS=, becomes permanent.