fputcsv display leading zeros

Question

I'm using a PHP script to generate an excel CSV file from a result-set query. All works fine but when I read my excel file, I can not display leading zeros.

This is my code:

$rows = $this->Query($sql);

$filename = "/www/zendsvr/htdocs/Project/public/report.xls";
$realPath = realpath( $filename );

$filename = realpath( $filename );
$handle = fopen( $filename, "w" );
$finalData = array();

for( $i = 0; $i < count( $rows ); $i++ ) {
    $finalData[] = array( utf8_decode( $rows[$i]->CODE ) );
}

foreach ( $finalData AS $finalRow ) {
    fputcsv( $handle, $finalRow, "\t" );
}

fclose( $handle );

If I make a var_dump() of $finalData[] I see the correct value, for example '000198', '000199', '000200' but the same value in my XLS file is 198,199,200

How can I also display leading zeros in the XLS file?

Answer 1

To add to DemoUser's approach:

The \t approach worked for me however with a slight change

$column_data = "\t000543";

Adding the \t solved my problem of having the leading zero's disappear, even though the CSV was correct and Excel was 'wrong' the \t worked in keeping the leading zeros intact when displaying in excel.

Answer 2

I was surprised after so many years no-one came with a working solution.

Here's what worked for me:

$records = [
    ['name' => 'John', 'phone' => '01234567'],
    ['name' => 'Jane', 'phone' => '01234569'],
];

$file = fopen('php://output', 'w');

fputcsv($file, ['Name', 'Phone N°']);

foreach ($records as $record) {
    fputcsv($file, [$record['name'], "=\"" . $record['phone'] . "\""]);
}