issue inserting empty columns into csv - php

Question

I am trying to export a csv file with empty fields via php using select statements but the empty columns are not being included in the csv output.

    $query = "SELECT client_last_name,'','','','', client_first_name FROM billing_line_item"; 


   $result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

   if (!$result) {
    die("Query Failed" . mysqli_error($connection));
   } else {

    header('Content-Type: text/csv; charset=utf-8');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=data.csv');

    $output = fopen('php://output', 'w');         
    fputs($output, implode($header1, ',')."\n");
    while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        fputs($output,implode($row, ',')."\n");
    }
    fclose($output);
    exit();
}

The output in my csv file is the following:

Print_R of Array:
Array
(
[client_last_name] => LastName
[] => 
[client_first_name] => FirstName
)

Output:  LastName,,FirstName
Expecting: LastName,,,,,FirstName

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-03 18:47:37Z

1

Since you didn't assign any aliases to the empty columns, they're all named with the same empty string. But an associative array can't have duplicate keys, so you only get one empty column when you use mysqli_fetch_assoc. Instead, use mysqli_fetch_row, which returns a numeric-indexed array.

Alternatively you could assign aliases to the empty columns.

$query = "SELECT client_last_name,'' AS empty1, '' AS empty2, '' AS empty3, '' AS empty4, client_first_name FROM billing_line_item";

answered Mar 3, 2016 at 18:47

Barmar

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