PHP Manual: Gets line from file pointer and parse for CSV fields

Description

array fgetcsv ( resource $handle [, int $length = 0 [, string $delimiter = "," [, string $enclosure = '"' [, string $escape = "\" ]]]] )

Similar to fgets except that fgetcsv parses the line it reads for fields in CSV format and returns an array containing the fields read.

Parameters

handle

A valid file pointer to a file successfully opened by fopen, popen, or fsockopen.

length

Must be greater than the longest line (in characters) to be found in the CSV file (allowing for trailing line-end characters). Otherwise the line is split in chunks of length characters, unless the split would occur inside an enclosure.

Omitting this parameter (or setting it to 0 in PHP 5.1.0 and later) the maximum line length is not limited, which is slightly slower.

delimiter

The optional delimiter parameter sets the field delimiter (one character only).

enclosure

The optional enclosure parameter sets the field enclosure character (one character only).

escape

The optional escape parameter sets the escape character (one character only).

Return Values

Returns an indexed array containing the fields read.

Note:
A blank line in a CSV file will be returned as an array comprising a single null field, and will not be treated as an error.

Note: If PHP is not properly recognizing the line endings when reading files either on or created by a Macintosh computer, enabling the auto_detect_line_endings run-time configuration option may help resolve the problem.

fgetcsv returns NULL if an invalid handle is supplied or FALSE on other errors, including end of file.

Changelog

Version	Description
5.3.0	The `escape` parameter was added
5.1.0	The `length` is now optional. Default is 0, meaning no length limit.
4.3.5	fgetcsv is now binary safe

Examples

Example #1 Read and print the entire contents of a CSV file


<?php
$row = 1;
if (($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);
}
?>

Notes

Note:
Locale setting is taken into account by this function. If LANG is e.g. en_US.UTF-8, files in one-byte encoding are read wrong by this function.

fgetcsv