README

Ease to use CSV Reader for PHP 7+

Instalation

In your project root, run the following composer command:

$ composer require tonyfarney/csv-reader

General orientations

CSVReader loads CSV from string and returns an array containing all lines read. Each position is a line e each line is an array of columns. For all the examples of use, we will consider the following code as the base implementation:

<?php
require __DIR__.'/vendor/autoload.php';
    
use \CSVReader\CSVReader;
    
$csvWithHeader = <<<CSV
name,role,age
"Tony Farney","Developer",30
"The Coffe Guy","Intern",18
"Someone Else","Developer",26
CSV;
    
$csvWithoutHeader = <<<CSV
"Tony Farney","Developer",30
"The Coffe Guy","Intern",18
"Someone Else","Developer",26
CSV;
    
$reader = new CSVReader();

Loading CSV with a header line

// Reads all the three columns
$lines = $reader->setHeader(['name', 'role', 'age'])->load($csvWithHeader);

// The colmuns order in the header definition doesn't matter
$lines = $reader->setHeader(['role', 'name', 'age'])->load($csvWithHeader); // Works exactly like the previous line

// Columns in CSV that are not in definition causes error
$lines = $reader->setHeader(['role', 'name'])->load($csvWithHeader); // CSVReader\CSVReaderException: The following columns are not expected in the header: age

// Columns in definition that are not in CSV doesn't causes error. That allows the "optional columns" behavior
$lines = $reader->setHeader(['role', 'name', 'age', 'another_column'])->load($csvWithHeader); // Works perfectly

All the succesfull reads above will output something like:

array(3) {
  [0]=>
  array(3) {
    ["name"]=>
    string(11) "Tony Farney"
    ["role"]=>
    string(9) "Developer"
    ["age"]=>
    string(2) "30"
  }
  [1]=>
  array(3) {
    ["name"]=>
    string(13) "The Coffe Guy"
    ["role"]=>
    string(6) "Intern"
    ["age"]=>
    string(2) "18"
  }
  [2]=>
  array(3) {
    ["name"]=>
    string(12) "Someone Else"
    ["role"]=>
    string(9) "Developer"
    ["age"]=>
    string(2) "26"
  }
}

Loading CSV without a header line

// Sets the indexes for the columns array, outputing exact the same as the header examples
$lines = $reader->setIndexing(['name', 'role', 'age'])->load($csvWithoutHeader);

The number of indexes definition must match with the read columns from CSV

$lines = $reader->setIndexing(['name', 'role', 'age', 'another_column'])->load($csvWithoutHeader);
$lines = $reader->setIndexing(['name', 'role')->load($csvWithoutHeader);

Both lines above will throw the following error:

CSVReader\CSVReaderException: The following lines of the CSV has mismatching number of values: 2, 3, 4

It's possible read CSV without have an indexed array of columns:

$lines = $reader->load($csvWithoutHeader);

Output:

array(3) {
  [0]=>
  array(3) {
    [0]=>
    string(11) "Tony Farney"
    [1]=>
    string(9) "Developer"
    [2]=>
    string(2) "30"
  }
  [1]=>
  array(3) {
    [0]=>
    string(13) "The Coffe Guy"
    [1]=>
    string(6) "Intern"
    [2]=>
    string(2) "18"
  }
  [2]=>
  array(3) {
    [0]=>
    string(12) "Someone Else"
    [1]=>
    string(9) "Developer"
    [2]=>
    string(2) "26"
  }
}

Tips

When reusing the same reader instance for read CSV with different configurations, it's necessary do a reset to avoid errors:

// First load
$lines = $reader->setHeader(['name', 'role', 'age'])->load($csvWithHeader);
// Second load requires a reset
$lines = $reader->reset()->load($csvWithoutHeader);

The reader will try to detect automatically the column delimiter by reading the first line and determining the usual delimiter (",", ";", "|", "\t") with most occurences, but it's possible manually set what delimiter to use:

$reader->setColumnDelimiter(';');

It's possible to set the enclosure (defaults to ") and the escape (defaults to ) characters :

$reader->setEnclosure('"')->setScape('\\');

Contributions/Support

You are welcome to contribute with improvement, bug fixes, new ideas, etc. Any doubt/problem, please contact me by email: tonyfarney@gmail.com. I'll be glad to help you ;)