Semicolon splits fields when export as a CSV file? - php

Question

I exported the reviews from my magento website in csv format. Reviews contains :,;,?,! etc. Normally reviews are well in fields. When the review contain ; ,it's get splitted to next field. (I opened the csv file using OpenOffice spreadsheet)
For Example:
Review -> It's nice to use; looks good.
Now output ->
Field A-> It's nice to use
Field B-> looks good
Expected Output
Field A ->It's nice to use; looks good
I used the following header to export as acsv file in php
header('Content-type: application/utf-8');
header('Content-disposition: attachment; filename="file.csv"');
How can I get my expected output?

Answer 1

I would advise tackling the problem from the other side - I believe this is a bone of contention for Magento as some users want the semi-colon.
I would suggest looking at the way you use openoffice - It has been a while but I believe there is an option during the load of the csv called "Separator options" - Change these and all should work well.
The sad thing is if this is the correct answer it is off topic :-( but I hope this helps you achieve your goal!
Thanks,
//P

Answer 2

I'm using this class I've made for exporting data as a CSV spreadsheet. The trick is fputcsv() which should do the formatting right. Then, of course, you must properly import it to OpenOffice (or LibreOffice now), but that's different story.
Maybe it'll help you out.
<?php
class Spreadsheet {
private $grid = array();
/**
* Set cell value at position X, Y
*/
public function setCell($x, $y, $value) {
for($yy=0; $yy<=$y; $yy++) {
if(!isset($this->grid[$yy])) {
$this->grid[$yy] = array();
}
}
for($xx=0; $xx<=$x; $xx++) {
if(!isset($this->grid[$y][$xx])) {
$this->grid[$y][$xx] = null;
}
}
$this->grid[$y][$x] = $value;
}
/**
* final command executed, including "exit".
* Sends CSV to browser.
*/
public function sendAsCsv(/*string*/ $filename) {
header('Content-type: text/csv; charset=utf-8');
header('Content-Language: cs');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . $filename . '"');
header("Pragma: no-cache");
header("Expires: 0");
ob_end_clean();
$outputBuffer = fopen("php://output", 'w');
$this->appendToFile($outputBuffer);
fclose($outputBuffer);
exit;
}
/**
* Appends content to a file (rarely used outside this class)
*/
public function appendToFile(/*resource*/ $fileHandle) {
foreach($this->grid as $val) {
fputcsv($fileHandle, $val);
}
}
}