How to extract data from csv file in PHP

Question

I have a csv file which looks like this

$lines[0] = "text, with commas", "another text", 123, "text",5; $lines[1] = "some without commas", "another text", 123, "text"; $lines[2] = "some text with commas or no",, 123, "text"; 

And I would like to have a table:

$t[0] = array("text, with commas", "another text", "123", "text","5"); $t[1] = array("some without commas", "another text", "123", "text"); $t[2] = array("some text, with comma,s or no", NULL , "123", "text"); 

If I use split($lines[0],",") I'll get "text" ,"with commas" ... Is there any elegant way to do it?

Answer 1

You can use fgetcsv to parse a CSV file without having to worry about parsing it yourself.

Example from PHP Manual:

$row = 1; if (($handle = fopen("test.csv", "r")) !== FALSE) {     while (($data = fgetcsv($handle, 1000, ",")) !== FALSE) {         $num = count($data);         echo "<p> $num fields in line $row: <br /></p>\n";         $row++;         for ($c=0; $c < $num; $c++) {             echo $data[$c] . "<br />\n";         }     }     fclose($handle); } 

Answer 2

In addition to Matt's suggestion, you can also use SplFileObject to read in the file:

$file = new SplFileObject("data.csv"); $file->setFlags(SplFileObject::READ_CSV); $file->setCsvControl(',', '"', '\\'); // this is the default anyway though foreach ($file as $row) {     list ($fruit, $quantity) = $row;     // Do something with values } 

^{source: http://de.php.net/manual/en/splfileobject.setcsvcontrol.php}