Write to CSV with PHP function fputcsv - php

Question

I am using fputcsv to write to a CSV from MySQL results:
$list = array("group, variable, value \r\n");
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
array_push($list, $row['strand_pk'] . ',' . $row['unit_name']. "\r\n");
}
$fp = fopen('../reports/data.csv', 'w');
fputcsv($fp, $list);
fclose($fp);
The array when printed on the browser page looks like:
Array
(
[0] => group, variable, value
[1] => 1,Integrated Medical Systems 1
[2] => 1,Integrated Medical Systems 2
[3] => 1,Integrated Medical Practice 1
...
)
The CSV with output looks like:
"group, variable, value
","1,Integrated Medical Systems 1
","1,Integrated Medical Systems 2
","1,Integrated Medical Practice 1
..."
What I need is the CSV to look like:
group,variable,value
1,IMP 3,40
1,IMP 2,8
1,IMP 1,54
1,IMS 2,10
What am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

fputcsv expects proper, one-dimensional arrays (not comma-separated strings).
Your code should look something like this:
$list = ['group', 'variable', 'value'];
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
$list[] = [$row['strand_pk'], $row['unit_name']]; // you're missing a value here though
}
Then you'll need to loop over the array before writing into the file:
foreach ($list as $row) {
fputcsv($fp, $row);
}
Note that you might not need to build $list at all if you only need to create the CSV with it. Use fputcsv directly within your while loop then.