PHP CSV Export With MetaData - php

Question

I have a basic order system that I've built in PHP. Each product can have an unlimited number of metadata entries (containing information for that product). I want to build a CSV export that will include each metadata option as a column in the export file. The export should only contain the metadata for the products in the order.
For example, if I have the following array:
order = array(
'Product1' => array(
'name' => 'TShirt',
'MetaData' => array(
'1' => array(
'key' => 'size',
'value' => 'm'
)
),
'Product2' => array(
'name' => 'Backpack',
'MetaData' => array(
'1' => array(
'key' => 'waist',
'value' => '50 cm'
),
'2' => array(
'key' => 'height',
'value' => '150 cm'
)
'3' => array(
'key' => 'chest',
'value' => '25 cm'
)
),
)
I would like the CSV to look like:
(header row): product / size / waist / height / chest
(data row): t-shirt / m / NULL / NULL / NULL
(data row): backpack / NULL / 50 cm / 150 cm / 25 cm
I know I can hardcode this, but I want it to be scalable. I know this will need to be done in 2 steps - 1) build the columns by iterating through each product and each product's meta, 2) add a row entry for each product - but I can't exactly nail down how to do it. The problem I'm running in to is knowing which column I'm inserting data into. Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Here's what I came up with. Hope it gives you a starting point.
<?php
// Your original array (I've made a few corrections)
$order = array(
'Product1' => array(
'name' => 'TShirt',
'MetaData' => array(
'1' => array(
'key' => 'size',
'value' => 'm'
)
)
),
'Product2' => array(
'name' => 'Backpack',
'MetaData' => array(
'1' => array(
'key' => 'waist',
'value' => '50 cm'
),
'2' => array(
'key' => 'height',
'value' => '150 cm'
),
'3' => array(
'key' => 'chest',
'value' => '25 cm'
)
)
),
);
// Declare header array to receive all keys from metadata
$header = array();
// Sweep metadata portion of array to retrieve keys
foreach ($order as $product) {
foreach ($product['MetaData'] as $metadata) {
if (! in_array($metadata['key'], $header)) {
$header[] = $metadata['key'];
}
}
}
// Declare content array
$content = array();
// Sweep array again to get the appropriate key/value matches
foreach ($order as $product) {
$row = array();
$row[] = $product['name'];
// Get metadata
foreach ($header as $heading) {
$added = false; // set a flag so if there are no matches, fill with "NULL" (below)
foreach ($product['MetaData'] as $metadata) {
if ($heading == $metadata['key']) { // if the heading matches the metadata key, we got a match
$row[] = $metadata['value'];
$added = true;
break;
}
}
if (! $added) {
$row[] = 'NULL';
}
}
// Add the row to the content array
$content[] = $row;
}
// Put it all together
$csv = 'product / ' . implode(' / ', $header) . "\n";
foreach ($content as $row) {
$csv .= implode(' / ', $row) . "\n";
}
echo "<pre>$csv</pre>";
?>
Good luck!