Export to CSV thru PHP and show Hyperlinked cells - php

Question

I don't know whether this is happening thing or not. Anyways, my problem is
I have log function in my website, from where the Admin can view or visit the locations where the end users have visited. --> This is simple PHP
Now, if he wants to export the log he can but the exported CSV dont have links to the loations.
Hope you got.
I am posting code for your ref:
$contents="Sr.No,User_Type,Location\n";
$add = "select * from log_table order by id";
$user_query = mysql_query($add);
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($user_query))
{
$contents.=$row[log_id].",";
$contents.=$row[Type].",";
$contents.="<a href='$row[location]'>".$row[location]."</a>\n";
}
Header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=export.csv");
print $contents;
I had tried putting tag around Location. But it is not working.
What I Expect is
And What I got is
Advance Thanks =)

Answer 1

Excel isnt smart enough to handle CSV links. But is smart enough to handle regular HTML tables.
just output something like the following to a file called output.xls:
<table border=1>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>employee</td>
<td><a href='http://www.example.com'>example</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
Excel will give you a notice that the file is not in the expected format, but if you confirm that you want to open it, you get what you want. Added bonus is that you can also use colors, width/height etc. For an admin that might be enough.
Another bonus is that you dont have to worry about different excel locales where some CSV require ; and others require ,

Answer 2

CSV doesn't support this type of formatting. That is, CSV is plain text. Microsoft Excel isn't automatically converting the links to be clickable.
If you want this, you will have to use an XLS Builder or some equivalent for whichever software you're looking to open it in.
Also, don't try to write your own CSV. Use fputcsv() if your'e going to continue working with a CSV format.