Question

So, my code generates a CSV file using PHP’s built-in fputcsv function.

For the delimiter, I use ',' (a comma).
For the enclosure, I use '"' (a double-quote).

However, when I try something like

fputcsv($file,array('a','b',"long string, with commas",NULL,''),',','"');

it outputs

a,b,"long string, with commas",,

but I would like it to output

"a","b","long string, with commas","",""

Is there an easy way to deal with this, or would I have to write a replacement for fputcsv?

Answer 1

This is not usually a problem for CSV files.

fputcsv puts quotes around the value if it would be ambiguous. For example,

a,b,"long string, with commas",,

is not ambiguous, but,

a,b,long string, with commas,,

is, and will in most (read: all) cases be interpreted by the CSV reader as having more than 5 fields.

CSV parsers will accept string literals even without quotes around them.

If you want quotes around the values anyway, the following snippet would do that. It doesn’t escape quotes inside the string – that exercise is left to the reader:

$row = '"' . implode('", "', $rowitems) . '"';

You would want to put this in a loop for all your rows.