PHP:
Working with CSV
How to:
PHP provides built-in functions for handling CSV files, making it straightforward to read from and write to these files without needing third-party libraries. Here are examples to get you started:
Reading a CSV File
You can open a CSV file and read its contents using fopen() in combination with fgetcsv():
<?php
$filename = 'data.csv';
$handle = fopen($filename, "r");
if ($handle !== FALSE) {
while (($data = fgetcsv($handle, 1000, ",")) !== FALSE) {
$num = count($data);
echo "Number of fields in line: $num\n";
for ($c = 0; $c < $num; $c++) {
echo $data[$c] . "\n";
}
}
fclose($handle);
}
?>
This script prints each line’s number of fields followed by the content of each field.
Writing to a CSV File
To write to a CSV file, use fopen() in write mode (w) and fputcsv():
<?php
$list = [
['ID', 'Name', 'Email'],
[1, 'John Doe', '[email protected]'],
[2, 'Jane Doe', '[email protected]']
];
$handle = fopen('users.csv', 'w');
foreach ($list as $row) {
fputcsv($handle, $row);
}
fclose($handle);
?>
This script creates a file named users.csv and writes the header and two rows of data to it.
Using a Library: League\Csv
For more advanced CSV handling, the League\Csv library offers a robust set of features. After installing it via Composer (composer require league/csv), you can use it to read and write CSV data more flexibly.
Reading with League\Csv
<?php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
use League\Csv\Reader;
$csv = Reader::createFromPath('data.csv', 'r');
$csv->setHeaderOffset(0); // Set if you want to use the first row as header
$results = $csv->getRecords();
foreach ($results as $row) {
print_r($row);
}
?>
This script reads data.csv, treating the first row as column headers and prints each row as an associative array.
Writing with League\Csv
<?php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
use League\Csv\Writer;
$csv = Writer::createFromPath('users_new.csv', 'w+');
$csv->insertOne(['ID', 'Name', 'Email']);
$csv->insertAll([
[3, 'Alex Doe', '[email protected]'],
[4, 'Anna Smith', '[email protected]']
]);
echo "Written to users_new.csv successfully.";
?>
This creates users_new.csv and writes a header row followed by two data rows.