CSV export without MYSQL FILE functions - php

Question

i'd like to make an export into CSV format, but the mutualised host i use has deactivate the FILE functions in mysql.
I did a simple SELECT and then a fopen and fwrite with PHP.
The problem is that in fields there is carriage returns or double quotes.
How to keep them and build a correct csv file?
Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

To build a best CSV. you can do following way.
$filename ='data.csv';
$csv_terminated = "\n";
$csv_separator = ",";
$csv_enclosed = '"';
$csv_escaped = "\\";
$results = array('1','2','3');// value
$schema_insert = '';
$header = array('a','b','c');// header
for ($i = 0; $i< count($header); $i++)
{
$l = $csv_enclosed . str_replace($csv_enclosed, $csv_escaped . $csv_enclosed,
stripslashes($header[$i])) . $csv_enclosed;
$schema_insert .= $l;
$schema_insert .= $csv_separator;
} // end for
$out = trim(substr($schema_insert, 0, -1));
$out .= $csv_terminated;
// Format the data
for($i=0;$i<count($results);$i++)
{
$row = $results[$i];
$schema_insert = '';
for ($j = 0; $j < count($header); $j++)
{
if ($row[$j] == '0' || $row[$j] != '')
{
if ($csv_enclosed == '')
{
$schema_insert .= $row[$j];
} else
{
$schema_insert .= $csv_enclosed .
str_replace($csv_enclosed, $csv_escaped . $csv_enclosed, $row[$j]) . $csv_enclosed;
}
} else
{
$schema_insert .= 'NULL';
}
if ($j < count($header) - 1)
{
$schema_insert .= $csv_separator;
}
} // end for
$out .= $schema_insert;
$out .= $csv_terminated;
} // end while
header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
header("Content-Length: " . strlen($out));
// Output to browser with appropriate mime type, you choose <img src="http://thetechnofreak.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif" alt=";)" class="wp-smiley">
header("Content-type: text/x-csv");
//header("Content-type: text/csv");
//header("Content-type: application/csv");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$filename");
echo $out;
Notice that,
+ when you make enclosed for description which has html code , you should use double quote.
+ Empty value --> Change to Null text or Zero value
They will make your CSV better.

Answer 2

You can download file.csv by use header()
Output everything you want (base on csv format) after header function, for example:
$filename = "output";
header('Content-Type: text/csv');
header('Content-disposition: attachment;'.$filename.'=.csv');
$separate = ","; //or ;
$endline = "\r\n";
foreach($data as $key => $item)
{
echo $key.$separate.$value.$endline;
}

Answer 3

protected function getCsv( $fileName, array $data )
{
// alot of headers here, make force download work on IE8 over SSL
header("Pragma: public");
header("Expires: 0");
header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
header("Cache-Control: private",false);
header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$fileName.'"');
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
// Joe Green says:
// based on http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.fputcsv.php#100033
$outStream = fopen("php://output", "r+");
function __getCsv( &$vals, $key, $filehandler ) {
fputcsv( $filehandler, $vals, ',', '"');
}
array_walk( $data, '__getCsv', $outStream );
fclose($outStream);
}
fputcsv is your friend. Also, I had to refine this function to get it to this point. Some of those headers are required by IE to force the csv to open as a csv, particularly over SSL. I seem to recall it had something to do with IE8 not recognising the 'text/csv' content type in the first instance and some security features around SSL downloads in the second.