[php] Convert array into csv

How to convert an array into a CSV file?

This is my array:

stdClass Object
(

    [OrderList_RetrieveByContactResult] => stdClass Object
        (
            [OrderDetails] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [entityId] => 1025298
                    [orderId] => 10952
                    [orderName] => testing
                    [statusTypeId] => 4652
                    [countryCode] => AU
                    [orderType] => 1
                    [invoiceNumber] => 0
                    [invoiceDate] => 0001-01-01T00:00:00
                    [userID_AssignedTo] => 11711
                    [shippingAmount] => 8.95
                    [shippingTaxRate] => 0
                    [shippingAttention] => 
                    [shippingInstructions] => 
                    [shippingOptionId] => 50161
                    [discountCodeId] => 0
                    [discountRate] => 0
                    [totalOrderAmount] => 408.45
                    [directDebitTypeId] => 0
                    [directDebitDays] => 0
                    [isRecur] => 
                    [nextInvoiceDate] => 0001-01-01T00:00:00
                    [endRecurDate] => 0001-01-01T00:00:00
                    [cycleTypeID] => 1
                    [createDate] => 2010-10-08T18:40:00
                    [lastUpdateDate] => 2010-10-08T18:40:00
                    [deleted] => 
                    [products] => stdClass Object
                        (
                            [Product] => stdClass Object
                                (
                                    [productId] => 674975
                                    [productCode] => 
                                    [productDescription] => 
                                    [units] => 10
                                    [unitPrice] => 39.95
                                    [unitTaxRate] => 0
                                    [totalProductPrice] => 399.5
                                    [productName] => Acne Clearing Gel
                                )

                        )

                    [addresses] => stdClass Object
                        (
                            [Address] => stdClass Object
                                (
                                    [addressTypeID] => 8
                                    [addressLine1] => Cebu City
                                    [city] => Cebu
                                    [zipcode] => 6000
                                    [state] => 
                                    [countryCode] => PH
                                )

                        )

                )

        )

)

This question is related to php arrays csv

The answer is


Well maybe a little late after 4 years haha... but I was looking for solution to do OBJECT to CSV, however most solutions here is actually for ARRAY to CSV...

After some tinkering, here is my solution to convert object into CSV, I think is pretty neat. Hope this would help someone else.

$resp = array();
foreach ($entries as $entry) {
    $row = array();
    foreach ($entry as $key => $value) {
        array_push($row, $value);
    }
    array_push($resp, implode(',', $row));
}
echo implode(PHP_EOL, $resp);

Note that for the $key => $value to work, your object's attributes must be public, the private ones will not get fetched.

The end result is that you get something like this:

blah,blah,blah
blah,blah,blah

Add some improvements based on accepted answer.

  1. PHP 7.0 Strict typing
  2. PHP 7.0 Type declaration and Return type declaration
  3. Enclosure \r, \n, \t
  4. Don't enclosure empty string even $encloseAll is TRUE
/**
  * Formats a line (passed as a fields array) as CSV and returns the CSV as a string.
  * Adapted from https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.fputcsv.php#87120
  */
function arrayToCsv(array $fields, string $delimiter = ';', string $enclosure = '"', bool $encloseAll = false, bool $nullToMysqlNull = false): string {

    $delimiter_esc = preg_quote($delimiter, '/');
    $enclosure_esc = preg_quote($enclosure, '/');

    $output = [];
    foreach ($fields as $field) {
        if ($field === null && $nullToMysqlNull) {
            $output[] = 'NULL';
            continue;
        }
        // Enclose fields containing $delimiter, $enclosure or whitespace, newline
        $field = strval($field);
        if (strlen($field) && ($encloseAll || preg_match("/(?:${delimiter_esc}|${enclosure_esc}|\s|\r|\n|\t)/", $field))) {
            $output[] = $enclosure . str_replace($enclosure, $enclosure . $enclosure, $field) . $enclosure;
        } else {
            $output[] = $field;
        }
    }

    return implode($delimiter, $output);

}

function array_2_csv($array) {
    $csv = array();
    foreach ($array as $item) {
        if (is_array($item)) {
            $csv[] = array_2_csv($item);
        } else {
            $csv[] = $item;
        }
    }
    return implode(',', $csv);
} 

$csv_data = array_2_csv($array);

echo "<pre>";
print_r($csv_data);
echo '</pre>'   ; 

My solution requires the array be formatted differently than provided in the question:

<?
    $data = array(
        array( 'row_1_col_1', 'row_1_col_2', 'row_1_col_3' ),
        array( 'row_2_col_1', 'row_2_col_2', 'row_2_col_3' ),
        array( 'row_3_col_1', 'row_3_col_2', 'row_3_col_3' ),
    );
?>

We define our function:

<?
    function outputCSV($data) {
        $outputBuffer = fopen("php://output", 'w');
        foreach($data as $val) {
            fputcsv($outputBuffer, $val);
        }
        fclose($outputBuffer);
    }
?>

Then we output our data as a CSV:

<?
    $filename = "example";

    header("Content-type: text/csv");
    header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename={$filename}.csv");
    header("Pragma: no-cache");
    header("Expires: 0");

    outputCSV($data);
?>

I have used this with several projects, and it works well. I should note that the outputCSV code is more clever than I am, so I am sure I am not the original author. Unfortunately I have lost track of where I got it, so I can't give the credit to whom it is due.


The accepted answer from Paul is great. I've made a small extension to this which is very useful if you have an multidimensional array like this (which is quite common):

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [a] => "a"
            [b] => "b"
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [a] => "a2"
            [b] => "b2"
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [a] => "a3"
            [b] => "b3"
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [a] => "a4"
            [b] => "b4"
        )

    [4] => Array
        (
            [a] => "a5"
            [b] => "b5"
        )

)

So I just took Paul's function from above:

/**
  * Formats a line (passed as a fields  array) as CSV and returns the CSV as a string.
  * Adapted from http://us3.php.net/manual/en/function.fputcsv.php#87120
  */
function arrayToCsv( array &$fields, $delimiter = ';', $enclosure = '"', $encloseAll = false, $nullToMysqlNull = false ) {
    $delimiter_esc = preg_quote($delimiter, '/');
    $enclosure_esc = preg_quote($enclosure, '/');

    $output = array();
    foreach ( $fields as $field ) {
        if ($field === null && $nullToMysqlNull) {
            $output[] = 'NULL';
            continue;
        }

        // Enclose fields containing $delimiter, $enclosure or whitespace
        if ( $encloseAll || preg_match( "/(?:${delimiter_esc}|${enclosure_esc}|\s)/", $field ) ) {
            $output[] = $enclosure . str_replace($enclosure, $enclosure . $enclosure, $field) . $enclosure;
        }
        else {
            $output[] = $field;
        }
    }

    return implode( $delimiter, $output );
}

And added this:

function a2c($array, $glue = "\n")
{
    $ret = [];
    foreach ($array as $item) {
        $ret[] = arrayToCsv($item);
    }
    return implode($glue, $ret);
}

So you can just call:

$csv = a2c($array);

If you want a special line ending you can use the optional parameter "glue" for this.


A slight adaptation to the solution above by kingjeffrey for when you want to create and echo the CSV within a template (Ie - most frameworks will have output buffering enabled and you are required to set headers etc in controllers.)

// Create Some data
<?php
    $data = array(
        array( 'row_1_col_1', 'row_1_col_2', 'row_1_col_3' ),
        array( 'row_2_col_1', 'row_2_col_2', 'row_2_col_3' ),
        array( 'row_3_col_1', 'row_3_col_2', 'row_3_col_3' ),
    );


// Create a stream opening it with read / write mode
$stream = fopen('data://text/plain,' . "", 'w+');

// Iterate over the data, writting each line to the text stream
foreach ($data as $val) {
    fputcsv($stream, $val);
}

// Rewind the stream
rewind($stream);

// You can now echo it's content
echo stream_get_contents($stream);

// Close the stream 
fclose($stream);

Credit to Kingjeffrey above and also to this blog post where I found the information about creating text streams.


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