CSV to MYSQL parse issue

Question

I am trying to parse a .csv file into a mysql database, and it's not fun.

Some rows look like this:

"Value", Value, "Value3", ,"Value,Value"

And some look like this:

Value, Value, , Value, , Value

This preg_split worked well except for fields that were empty:

foreach ($row as $item) {
     $item = preg_split( "/[,]*\\\"([^\\\"]+)\\\"[,]*|[,]+/", $item, 0, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE|PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
}

When I removed "PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY", I got an extra, empty value added at the end of $item. Is there a regex expression that would work for this?

You might be able to make your life easier using existing functionality in MySQL, like Load Data Infile: dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/load-data.html — OMG Ponies
– OMG Ponies, Commented Jul 12, 2010 at 16:27

Mark Baker · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-12 16:29:25Z

8

Alternatively, use PHP's built in fgetcsv() or str_getcsv() functions rather than messing about with regular expressions trying to reinvent the wheel

answered Jul 12, 2010 at 16:29

Mark Baker

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1 Comment

+1. Don't write your own CSV parser. It's harder than you think. You'll get it wrong.