WeberDev.com -> PHP Manual -> Gets line from file pointer and parse for CSV fields

Description

array fgetcsv ( resource $handle [, int $length [, 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). It became optional in PHP 5. Omitting this parameter (or setting it to 0 in PHP 5.0.4 and later) the maximum line length is not limited, which is slightly slower.
delimiter: Set the field delimiter (one character only). Defaults as a comma.
enclosure: Set the field enclosure character (one character only). Defaults as a double quotation mark.
escape: Set the escape character (one character only). Defaults as a backslash (\)

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 FALSE on error, including end of file.

ChangeLog

Version	Description
5.3.0	The `escape` parameter was added
4.3.5	fgetcsv() is now binary safe
4.3.0	The `enclosure` parameter was added

Examples

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

 <?php
$row = 1;
$handle = fopen("test.csv", "r");
while (($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