CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpcsvlaravel-5
asolenzal
asolenzal

Reputation: 500

Correct way to handle CSV Files on PHP

Hi I have the following brain braking thing going on. The thig is that I'm developing a Laravel Application that imports and exports CSV files. Now, the data that the application Imports/Exports(I/E now on) has fields from various data types, we have text and numbers, now the text can contain commas(,) and using the default CSV separator (,) on php can lead to fields on the import to generate incorrectly. The client suggested that I I/E using ^ as a separator for the export and (,) again for the import of the data. Now, my question is, can I trust when I/E data using the default separator? Can anyone suggest a best way to do the I/E process?

Edit The client main struggle is because he uses Excel on a Mac to edit the CSV files, now on my Mac, I can easily edit the files without any issues regarding the separator, of course if the separator is a comma (,) but if we use the ^ as a separator then my excel is a mess and he's ommit some fields.

Thanks in advance.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 353

Answers (2)

CodeBoy
CodeBoy

Reputation: 3300

Don't re-invent the wheel. Re-use a well-written well-tested package. On good one is CSV from The PHP League.

(Historical note about delimiters: the most overlooked (for 50+ years) feature in computing is that the ASCII charset (and therefore UTF8 too) assigned specific chars for delimiting fields (or units, as they called them) and records ... and even groups of records and entire files. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delimiter#ASCII_delimited_text. But instead folks didnt RTM and so used commas, etc to separate fields and newlines (\r, \n, \r\n) to separate records. D-oh!!! So, if you are able to select your own delimiters and want to be safe by using a char not used for any other purpose, use the ASCII delimiters.)

Upvotes: 2

ArSeN
ArSeN

Reputation: 5258

There is no such thing as a "CSV standard". Therefore, having a "default" comma is not exactly true. One can basically use whatever one likes, and the column and line seperaters as well as the enclosures for values or complete lines really depend on what you are planning to put in as data.

TL;DR: It is totally up to you and your client, what you are using as those characters.

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions