PHP CSV Column Headings

Question

I'm exporting a some data from a survey to CSV for use by another team with PHP. I have outputted my first row of data as all of the headings. But I need some of the headings to span 2 columns is the at all possible.

The headings are all in correctly, but I need to add two cells of data underneath some of the headings.

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

require_once ( dirname(dirname(dirname(dirname(__FILE__)))).'/wp-load.php' );

$content =build_csv_download();
$headings = convert_to_csv($content[0]);
$csv_content = convert_to_csv($content[1]);
$output = fopen('php://output', 'w');
fwrite($output, $headings);
fwrite($output, $csv_content);

Any ideas?

paulmorriss · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-11 16:33:59Z

1

It's not possible to have headings that span two columns as CSV is such a basic format it doesn't allow you to represent merged cells. However if the second of the two columns has no header (so heading,,nextheading) then when you open it in Excel the heading will spread across into the empty cell.

answered Nov 11, 2011 at 16:33

paulmorriss

2,62327 silver badges31 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

David Over a year ago

This could be the answer i'm looking for. I forget how primitive .csv can be at times. Just trying it now. Cheers for the suggestion though.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-07 06:31:44Z

CSV does not support column spanning. Some programs like Excel might try to make sense out of missing headings or other such tricks, but that doesn't leave you with a valid CSV file. See https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4180

Concatenate the data with a non-significant string (like a space or a hyphen) before making the CSV data. Basically, you're just taking the two data columns and making them in to one.

The easiest way to do this is to use CONCAT (docs) to combine the stings right out of the database:

    SELECT 
        id,
        CONCAT(first_name, " " last_name) AS name,
        email
    FROM 
        users

 /*   Gives these results:
    Array
    (
        [0] => Array
            (
                [id] => 1
                [name] => Bob Someuser
                [email] => [email protected]
            )
    
        [1] => Array
            (
                [id] => 2
                [name] => George Anotheruser
                [email] => [email protected]
            )
    
    )
*/

If you can't do that in the database query, you can use array_walk (docs) to do it after the fact:

$headings = array(
    'First heading',
    'Second heading',
    'Third heading'
);

$one_data = array(
    'First data',
    'Second',
    'data',
    'Third data'
);
$data = array();
for ($x=0;$x<10;$x++)
    $data[] = $one_data;

print 'Before fix:';
print_r($data);

function prepare_array (&$item) {
    $item[1] = $item[1].' '.$item[2];
    unset($item[3]);
}
array_walk($data, "prepare_array");

print '<br><br>After fix:';
print_r($data);

function csv_array (&$item) {
    $item = implode(',', $item);
}
$csv = implode(',', $headings)."\n";
array_walk($data, "csv_array");
$csv .= implode("\n", $data);

print '<br><br>CSV:<br>'.$csv;

WWW · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-11 16:34:54Z

0

CSV doesn't support column-spanning, so you'd just have to put the same field header on top of two columns. It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but then CSV isn't the most flexible format in the world either.

answered Nov 11, 2011 at 16:34

WWW

9,8782 gold badges32 silver badges33 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP CSV Column Headings

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related