Menu
Community /Pin to ProfileBookmark
@NogDogAug 16.2005 — #In a CSV file, any field which contains a comma must be quoted. Any field which has quotes must be quoted with the actual content quotes being doubled up. So, for the following fields...
...the CSV file should be...
(Note that it is OK though not necessary to quote the first field, too.)@NogDogAug 17.2005 — #
Ugh. That makes life difficult if they're not going to supply you with a proper CSV format. ?@NogDogAug 17.2005 — #OK, that was a fun challenge. ? What I've come up with is creating an temporary CSV file "on the fly", and converting the user's pseudo-CSV file into a proper one, then using the fgetcsv function to read from it. (This would be easier with PHP5 (I'm on 4) since it has a fputcsv() function, but this should be more portable anyway.) If/when ready to try this with your actual input file, just delete/comment out the section where I create the test data, and change the name of the input file on the line that reads [b]$csv = file($testFile) or die("Unable to read in CSV file");[/b] (and eventually get rid of the various [b]# DEBUG ... # /DEBUG[/b] sections).
@NogDogAug 17.2005 — #LOL - I was just getting ready to post this...
I was thinking that the whole temp file thing is unnecessary (and just another possible point of failure), but I was so zeroed in on the whole CSV compatibility thing I got stuck on that. Here's a version with no temp file and no CSV functions - and it should therefore even execute a bit faster, I would think.
@NogDogAug 21.2005 — #Looks to me like it's ending each line with a "" followed by a newline character. If you want to leave the newline in place to mark the end of a line, then...
Otherwise, if you want to replace the whole thing with a space...
@NogDogAug 21.2005 — #You need to use double-quotes for the n to be interpreted as a newline character (and thus the need to escape the preceding backslash). '
problem with reading a csv file.
Hi,
I am using fgetcsv to read my csv files but i have a problem.
In the csv i have a description field, now that description field uses comma’s
The commas that need to be ignored have a infront of them and delimiter is a comma on its own.
Any idea how i can get it to ignore comma’s with a $ignoredelimiter variable in it
[code=php]
$ignoredelimiter = “”;
while (($line < $previewLimit) && ($data = fgetcsv($myFile, 1024, $delimiter)))
Many Thanks
Adam
Sign in
to post a comment18 Comments(s) ↴
0
@NogDogAug 16.2005 — #In a CSV file, any field which contains a comma must be quoted. Any field which has quotes must be quoted with the actual content quotes being doubled up. So, for the following fields...<i>
</i>1. test
2. this is, a test
3. this is a "test", so to speak
...the CSV file should be...
<i>
</i>test,"this is, a test","this is a ""test"", so to speak"
(Note that it is OK though not necessary to quote the first field, too.)
0
@NogDogAug 17.2005 — #the big problem is that unfortunatly i do not have control on the csv they are from a client? Stupid i know, but unfortunatly the way it is ?
Thanks for your help[/QUOTE]
Ugh. That makes life difficult if they're not going to supply you with a proper CSV format. ?
0
@NogDogAug 17.2005 — #OK, that was a fun challenge. ? What I've come up with is creating an temporary CSV file "on the fly", and converting the user's pseudo-CSV file into a proper one, then using the fgetcsv function to read from it. (This would be easier with PHP5 (I'm on 4) since it has a fputcsv() function, but this should be more portable anyway.) If/when ready to try this with your actual input file, just delete/comment out the section where I create the test data, and change the name of the input file on the line that reads [b]$csv = file($testFile) or die("Unable to read in CSV file");[/b] (and eventually get rid of the various [b]# DEBUG ... # /DEBUG[/b] sections).[code=php]
<?php
# create test data:
$testFile = "test.csv";
$test =fopen($testFile, 'w') or die("unable to create test file");
for($i=1; $i<=3; $i++)
{
fputs($test, 'Line '.$i.',This is a "test".,It is, only, a test.'."n");
}
fclose($test);
# END create test data
### DEBUG
echo "<pre>TEST DATA:n";
readfile($testFile);
echo "</pre>";
### /DEBUG
# create temporary CSV file
$tmpCSV = "tmp".uniqid('X').".csv";
$tmp = fopen($tmpCSV, 'w') or die("unable to open temp file");
$csv = file($testFile) or die("Unable to read in CSV file");
foreach($csv as $key => $line)
{
$line = str_replace(',', '[comma]', trim($line));
$fields = explode(',', str_replace('"', '""', $line));
$out = '';
foreach($fields as $value)
{
$out .= '"'.str_replace('[comma]',',',$value).'",';
}
$out = rtrim($out, ',') . "n";
fputs($tmp, $out);
}
fclose($tmp);
# END create temporary CSV file
### DEBUG
echo "<pre>TMP FILE:n";
readfile($tmpCSV);
echo "</pre>";
### /DEBUG
# use the tmp file as our CSV file now:
$myFile = fopen($tmpCSV, 'r') or die("unable to open tmp csv file for reading");
# hard code vars for testing:
$line = 1;
$previewLimit = 2;
while (($line < $previewLimit) && $data = fgetcsv($myFile, 1024))
{
# do stuff with array $data here
# DEBUG
echo "<pre>";
print_r($data);
echo "</pre>n";
# /DEBUG
}
fclose($myFile);
# delete tmp file (and test data file):
unlink($tmpCSV);
unlink($testFile);
?>
[/code]0
@NogDogAug 17.2005 — #LOL - I was just getting ready to post this...I was thinking that the whole temp file thing is unnecessary (and just another possible point of failure), but I was so zeroed in on the whole CSV compatibility thing I got stuck on that. Here's a version with no temp file and no CSV functions - and it should therefore even execute a bit faster, I would think.
[code=php]
<?php
# create test data:
$testFile = "test.csv";
$test =fopen($testFile, 'w') or die("unable to create test file");
for($i=1; $i<=3; $i++)
{
fputs($test, 'Line '.$i.',This is a "test".,It is, only, a test.'."n");
}
fclose($test);
# END create test data
### DEBUG
echo "<pre>TEST DATA:n";
readfile($testFile);
echo "</pre>";
### /DEBUG
$csv = file($testFile) or die("Unable to read in CSV file");
foreach($csv as $line)
{
$fields = explode(',', str_replace(',', '[comma]', trim($line)));
foreach($fields as $key => $value)
{
$fields[$key] = str_replace('[comma]',',',$value);
}
$dataArray[] = $fields;
}
# END create temporary CSV file
### DEBUG
echo "<pre>$data array:n";
print_r($dataArray);
echo "</pre>";
### /DEBUG
# use the tmp file as our CSV file now:
$line = 1;
$previewLimit = 2;
while (($line < $previewLimit) && $data = array_shift($dataArray))
{
# do stuff with array $data here
# DEBUG
echo "<pre>";
print_r($data);
echo "</pre>n";
# /DEBUG
}
# delete test data file:
unlink($testFile);
?>
[/code]0
@NogDogAug 21.2005 — #Looks to me like it's ending each line with a "" followed by a newline character. If you want to leave the newline in place to mark the end of a line, then...[code=php]
$string = str_replace("\n", "n", $string);
[/code]Otherwise, if you want to replace the whole thing with a space...
[code=php]
$string = str_replace("\n", " ", $string);
[/code]0
@NogDogAug 21.2005 — #You need to use double-quotes for the n to be interpreted as a newline character (and thus the need to escape the preceding backslash). '