php-csv

This library focuses on simplicity and memory efficiency when processing CSV files in PHP.

Features

• Simple API
• Read CSV files line by line
• Memory efficiency: File is read line by line, no memory issues with large files
• Process CSV using row and chunk callbacks
• Fully documented
• Fully unit tested
• Composer ready

System Requirements

You need PHP >= 7.1.0 to use php-csv but the latest stable version of PHP is recommended.

Install

Install php-csv using Composer.

$ composer require lukaswerner/php-csv

Use

You can initialize an object of the main PhpCsv\Csv class by providing a valid \SplFileInfo object to the constructor:

$fileInfo = new \SplFileInfo('/path/to/file.csv');
$csv = new \PhpCsv\Csv($fileInfo);

You now have an easy to understand API to process your CSV file. Each processing method will at first rewind the file, so that you don't have any issues with file pointers. If your file does not contain a header row, you must call $csv->setContainsHeader(false);.

Number of lines

You can easily count the number of lines in your csv file by calling $csv->count();. This method will only once examine all lines. On second call it will use its previously set value. To avoid that, you have to create a new object of \PhpCsv\Csv.

Generator return values

The generator, created with $csv->rows() call will now have a return value if not aborted. That means, after iterating through all lines in your CSV file, you can get the line count as the generator return. Do something like this:

$rowsGenerator = $csv->rows();
foreach ($rowsGenerator as $row) {
    // Do something
}

$numberOfLines = (int)$rowsGenerator->getReturn();

Please note, that this will throw an exception, if you use break in your loop. Just like that, the $csv->process() will now return that generator return value or null, if aborted.

Reading header

You can read the header fields by calling $csv->header();. This will return an array of strings with header information. This method will only once examine all lines. On second call it will use its previously set value. To avoid that, you have to create a new object of \PhpCsv\Csv.

Iterating over rows

You can iterate over all rows of your csv file by doing something like this:

foreach ($csv->rows() as $lineNumber => $row) {
    // Do somethine with row
}

The $lineNumber contains the current line number, starting with 1. The header (if existing) is not included. So a file with a header and one line has $lineCount = 1 on that line.

The rows() method returns a PHP Generator and loops can be continued or stopped as you wish.

Processing using callbacks

The php-csv library offers a comfortable process() method to process the CSV file using callbacks. You can do something like this:

$csv->process(
    function (array $row, int $lineNumber): bool {
        // Do something with your data
        
        return true; // If you return false here, the processing will stop
    }
);

Chunking

The callback processing also allows chunking. That means, you have a callback for each row and additionally a callback for each chunk. At first you can set the chunk size with $csv->setChunkSize(500) (default is 1000), then you call the process() method like this:

$csv->process(
    function (array $row, int $lineNumber): bool {
        // Do something with your data
        
        return true; // If you return false here, the processing will stop
    },
    function (): void {
        // Will be called e.g. every 500th row
        // you can flush your values to db or something like that
    }
);

Please note, that the chunk callback will be called one last time, when you return false from the row callback. That is to be able to flush incomplete chunks.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome and will be fully credited. Please feel free to open issues and ask for repository access.

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

License

The GNU General Public License v3.0. Please see LICENSE for more information.