php fputcsv and enclosing fields

Question

I was just about to ask the same questions as the question aksed here.... Forcing fputcsv to Use Enclosure For *all* Fields

The question was

When I use fputcsv to write out a line to an open file handle, PHP will add an enclosing character to any column that it believes needs it, but will leave other columns without the enclosures.

For example, you might end up with a line like this

11,"Bob ",Jenkins,"200 main st. USA ",etc

Short of appending a bogus space to the end of every field, is there any way to force fputcsv to always enclose columns with the enclosure (defaults to a ") character?

The answer was:

No, fputcsv() only encloses the field under the following conditions

/* enclose a field that contains a delimiter, an enclosure character, or a newline */
if (FPUTCSV_FLD_CHK(delimiter) ||
  FPUTCSV_FLD_CHK(enclosure) ||
  FPUTCSV_FLD_CHK(escape_char) ||
  FPUTCSV_FLD_CHK('\n') ||
  FPUTCSV_FLD_CHK('\r') ||
  FPUTCSV_FLD_CHK('\t') ||
  FPUTCSV_FLD_CHK(' ')
)

There is no "always enclose" option.

I need to create a CSV file will every field enclosed... What would be the best solution?

Thanks in advance...

Darra

Would changing the php sources be an option? I.e. is adding some "enclose always" flag to the function parameters feasible in your case? – Delict

Answer 1

Roll your own function - its not hard:

 function dumbcsv($file_handle, $data_array, $enclosure, $field_sep, $record_sep)
 {
     dumbescape(false, $enclosure);
     $data_array=array_map('dumbescape',$data_array);
     return fputs($file_handle, 
         $enclosure 
         . implode($enclosure . $field_sep . $enclosure, $data_array)
         . $enclosure . $record_sep);
 }
 function dumbescape($in, $enclosure=false)
 {
    static $enc;
    if ($enclosure===false) {
        return str_replace($enc, '\\' . $enc, $in);
    }
    $enc=$enclosure;
 }

(above is using unix style escaping)

C.

Annamarieannamese

$file_handle, $data_array, $enclosure, $field_sep, $record_sep - can you example what are values need to be passed ... please ... thank you in advance – Counteroffensive

$file_handle what value need to pass for this variable @Annamarieannamese – Counteroffensive

return fputs($file_handle, $enclosure . implode($enclosure . $field_sep . $enclosure, $data_array) . $enclosure . $record_sep); I am getting error in this line Message: Array to string conversion – Counteroffensive

Answer 2

A workaround: Supposing you have your data in a 2-dimensional array, you can append a string that will force quoting and you are sure is not contained in your data ("#@ @#" here) and then remove it:

    $fp = fopen($filename, 'w');
    foreach ($data as $line => $row) {
        foreach ($row as $key => $value) {
            $row[$key] = $value."#@ @#";
        }           
        fputcsv($fp, $row);
    }

    fclose($fp);
    $contents = file_get_contents($filename);
    $contents = str_replace("#@ @#", "", $contents);
    file_put_contents($filename, $contents);

Faun

Answer 3

I have encountered the same problem, and I have solved it as follows.
I have inserted single quotes to each array value.
This way when you open the csv file with excel, the scientific notation E + 15 will no longer be displayed.

Here I share you as I did.

This worked for me, I hope you do too.
Regards

        // this function add a single quote for each member of array
         function insertquote($value) {
            return "'$value'";
        }

        # here i send each value of array 
        # to a insertquote function, and returns an array with new values, 
        # with the single quote.

        foreach ($list as $ferow) {
            fputcsv($fp, array_map(insertquote, $ferrow), ';');
        }

Tamp