Remove last item from product collection

Question

I want to remove last item from product collection

$collection = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->getCollection();

But I have to avoid any 'loop' solutions.

Answer 1

Without context, I cannot say if this is a good idea, but if you have a loaded collection and want to remove the last item from the collection (not delete it), you can do this:

$lastId = $collection->getLastItem()->getId();
$collection->removeItemByKey($lastId);

This works because internally the items are stored in an array with their id as key.

Answer 2

Additional database query but retaining collection:

$collection     = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->getCollection();
$collectionSize = $collection->getSize();
$collection->getSelect()->limit(--$collectionSize);

Basic PHP but out of collection scope:

$collection = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->getCollection();
$products   = $collection->getItems();
array_pop($products);