How to parse a .csv file into a multidimensional array in PHP? - php

Question

I'm a newbie in PHP and I'm trying to make a todo list that communicates with a .csv file,. So far I've managed to write a function that writes the user input into the csv file, but I'm stuck on writing a function that would parse (I'm not even sure if this is the correct term) every line of the .csv file into a multi dimensional array, so I could display every line of the list to my convenience in the PHTML file.
Here's what I have so far :
`<?php
//
// ─── DATA ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
//
$user_entry = array(
'title' => '',
'description' => '',
'date' => '',
'priority' => ''
);
// puts the data the users entered into an array
$user_entry['title'] = $_POST['title'];
$user_entry['description'] = $_POST['description'];
$user_entry['date'] = $_POST['date'];
$user_entry['priority'] = $_POST['priority'];
//
// ─── FUNCTIONS ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
//
function writeInList() {
//parses the $user_entry array into the .csv file
global $user_entry;
$file = fopen("todo.csv","a");
fputcsv($file, $user_entry, ",");
fclose($file);
}
function displayList() {
//That's where I'm stuck.
$file = fopen("todo.csv","r");
$fileCountable = file("todo.csv");
for ($i = 0; $i < count($fileCountable); $i++) {
$csvContent = fgetcsv($file, 1000, ",");
foreach ($csvContent as $value){
$var[$i] = $value;
}
echo '<br>';
}
fclose($file);
}
//
// ─── MAIN CODE ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
//
writeInList();
include 'todolist.phtml';`
I'm sorry if it has been discussed before. I've searched a lot and found similar questions but can't get to make it work in my own code. Thanks a lot in advance if anyone takes the time to take a look at my code !
This is also my very first time posting here so I hope I'm doing it right.

Answer 1

You did pretty good. You can look at fgetcsv documentation for more. I would have change you function so it will get the argument as input (try avoid using global)
// insert data
function writeInList($user_entry, $path ) {
$file = fopen($path ,"a");
fputcsv($file, $user_entry, ",");
fclose($file);
}
//extract data
function getList($path, $limit = 100000) {
$file = fopen($path, "r");
if (!$file) return null; // or throw error or print to log
$allRows = []; //
while (($data = fgetcsv($file, $limit, ",")) !== FALSE) {
$allRows[] = $data; // as fgetcsv return array already exlode by ","
}
fclose($file);
return $allRows;
}
Now you have 2-Dim array return from getList. Use is as getList("todo.csv") and display as you pleased.
Hope that helps!