Recipe 1.10. Generating Comma-Separated Data


1.10.1. Problem

You want to format data as comma-separated values (CSV) so that it can be imported by a spreadsheet or database.

1.10.2. Solution

Use the fputcsv( ) function to generate a CSV-formatted line from an array of data. Example 1-28 writes the data in $sales into a file.

Generating comma-separated data

<?php $sales = array( array('Northeast','2005-01-01','2005-02-01',12.54),                 array('Northwest','2005-01-01','2005-02-01',546.33),                 array('Southeast','2005-01-01','2005-02-01',93.26),                 array('Southwest','2005-01-01','2005-02-01',945.21),                 array('All Regions','--','--',1597.34) ); $fh = fopen('sales.csv','w') or die("Can't open sales.csv"); foreach ($sales as $sales_line) {     if (fputcsv($fh, $sales_line) === false) {         die("Can't write CSV line");     } } fclose($fh) or die("Can't close sales.csv"); ?>

1.10.3. Discussion

To print the CSV-formatted data instead of writing it to a file, use the special output stream php://output , as shown in Example 1-29.

Printing comma-separated data

<?php $sales = array( array('Northeast','2005-01-01','2005-02-01',12.54),                 array('Northwest','2005-01-01','2005-02-01',546.33),                 array('Southeast','2005-01-01','2005-02-01',93.26),                 array('Southwest','2005-01-01','2005-02-01',945.21),                 array('All Regions','--','--',1597.34) ); $fh = fopen('php://output','w'); foreach ($sales as $sales_line) {     if (fputcsv($fh, $sales_line) === false) {         die("Can't write CSV line");     } } fclose($fh); ?>

To put the CSV-formatted data into a string instead of printing it or writing it to a file, combine the technique in Example 1-29 with output buffering, as shown in Example 1-30.

Putting comma-separated data into a string

<?php $sales = array( array('Northeast','2005-01-01','2005-02-01',12.54),                 array('Northwest','2005-01-01','2005-02-01',546.33),                 array('Southeast','2005-01-01','2005-02-01',93.26),                 array('Southwest','2005-01-01','2005-02-01',945.21),                 array('All Regions','--','--',1597.34) ); ob_start(); $fh = fopen('php://output','w') or die("Can't open php://output"); foreach ($sales as $sales_line) {     if (fputcsv($fh, $sales_line) === false) {         die("Can't write CSV line");     } } fclose($fh) or die("Can't close php://output"); $output = ob_get_contents(); ob_end_clean(); ?>

1.10.4. See Also

Documentation on fputcsv( ) at http://www.php.net/fputcsv; Recipe 8.12 more information about output buffering.




PHP Cookbook, 2nd Edition
PHP Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for PHP Programmers
ISBN: 0596101015
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 445

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