Format data in csv parsed from xml using php - php

Question

Following is the code, i am trying to format the data extracted from the xml file into csv.By default its inserted row wise. I am trying to make it presentable and easy to interpret.
I am not a professional coder so please excuse me if my solution is not an optimised one.
<?php
header('Content-Type: application/excel');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="DynaMedResult.csv"');
//Using esearch utility capture WebEnv variable
$url= "http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esearch.fcgi?db=pubmed&term=DynaMed&usehistory=y&retmode=xml";
$xml = file_get_contents($url, false, $context); //Reads entire file into a string
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xml);
foreach ($xml->WebEnv as $WebenvSearch){
$WebEnv=$WebenvSearch;
}
//Using efetch utility and passing WebEnv variable parse the xml
$url= "http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi?db=pubmed&term=DynaMed&WebEnv=$WebEnv&query_key=1&usehistory=y&retmode=xml";
$xml = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xml); //Interprets a string of XML into an object
$fp = fopen('php://output', 'w');
foreach ($xml as $pubmedst){
$article=$pubmedst->MedlineCitation->Article->ArticleTitle;
$pmid=$pubmedst->MedlineCitation->PMID;
$journal1=$pubmedst->MedlineCitation->MedlineJournalInfo->MedlineTA;
$journal2=$pubmedst->MedlineCitation->MedlineJournalInfo->NlmUniqueID;
$pubyear=$pubmedst->MedlineCitation->Article->Journal->JournalIssue->PubDate->Year;
$pubmonth=$pubmedst->MedlineCitation->Article->Journal->JournalIssue->PubDate->Month;
$pubday=$pubmedst->MedlineCitation->Article->Journal->JournalIssue->PubDate->Day;
$authorl=$pubmedst->MedlineCitation->Article->AuthorList->Author->LastName;
$authorf=$pubmedst->MedlineCitation->Article->AuthorList->Author->ForeName;
$authori=$pubmedst->MedlineCitation->Article->AuthorList->Author->Initials;
$val1 = explode("\n", $article);
fputcsv($fp, $val1); //Format line as CSV and write to file pointer
$val2 = explode("\n", $pmid); //Splits a string by string in our case a newline
fputcsv($fp, $val2);
$val3 = explode("\n", $journal1.=$journal2);
fputcsv($fp, $val3);
$val4 = explode("\n", $authorl.=$authorf);
fputcsv($fp, $val4);
$val5 = explode("\n", $pubyear.=$pubmonth);
fputcsv($fp, $val5);
}
fclose($fp);
?>

Answer 1

As per the fputcsv() documentation, fputcsv() expects to be given an ARRAY of data to be output as csv data. You're passing in individual strings, so each string becomes a single "field" in a 1-column CSV file.
You need to build an array of data, then output the array:
$data[0] = 'foo';
$data[1] = 'bar';
$data[2] = 'baz';
fputcsv($fp, $data);
will produce
foo,bar,baz