Create and download CSV files using PHP

If you need to download a CSV file on the fly without writing to external file, than you need to open php://output stream and use fputcsv() on it.

Built in fputcsv() will generate CSV lines from given array, so you will have to loop over and collect the lines.

And you need to use some special headers , those headers tell to the browser that the content you are going to send must be downloaded instead, as displayed on the browser as a regular HTML.

Below is the simple function which will generate and output the CSV file on the fly

    function outputCSV($data,$file_name = 'file.csv') {
       # output headers so that the file is downloaded rather than displayed
        header("Content-Type: text/csv");
        header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$file_name");
        # Disable caching - HTTP 1.1
        header("Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate");
        # Disable caching - HTTP 1.0
        header("Pragma: no-cache");
        # Disable caching - Proxies
        header("Expires: 0");
    
        # Start the ouput
        $output = fopen("php://output", "w");
        
         # Then loop through the rows
        foreach ($data as $row) {
            # Add the rows to the body
            fputcsv($output, $row); // here you can change delimiter/enclosure
        }
        # Close the stream off
        fclose($output);
    }

function outputCSV($data,$file_name = 'file.csv') {

# output headers so that the file is downloaded rather than displayed

header("Content-Type: text/csv");

header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$file_name");

# Disable caching - HTTP 1.1

header("Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate");

# Disable caching - HTTP 1.0

header("Pragma: no-cache");

# Disable caching - Proxies

header("Expires: 0");

# Start the ouput

$output = fopen("php://output", "w");

# Then loop through the rows

foreach ($data as $row) {

# Add the rows to the body

fputcsv($output, $row); // here you can change delimiter/enclosure

}

# Close the stream off

fclose($output);

}

How to Use

Just call the function with array as the first parameter and second parameters is file name and it is optional.

    outputCSV(array(
        array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota"),
        array("Volvo 1", "BMW 1", "Toyota 1"),
        array("Volvo 2", "BMW 2", "Toyota 2"),
        array("Volvo 3", "BMW 3", "Toyota 3"),
    ),'download.csv');

outputCSV(array(

array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota"),

array("Volvo 1", "BMW 1", "Toyota 1"),

array("Volvo 2", "BMW 2", "Toyota 2"),

array("Volvo 3", "BMW 3", "Toyota 3"),

),'download.csv');

Function refernce

fputcsv() — Format line as CSV and write to file pointer
fopen() — Opens file or URL
foreach() — Format line as CSV and write to file pointer
fclose() — Closes an open file pointer

I hope you like this Post, Please feel free to comment below, your suggestion and problems if you face - we are here to solve your problems.

Arjun

I am Arjun from Hyderabad (India). I have been working as a software engineer from last 7+ years, and its my passion to learn new things and implement them as a practice. Aside from work, I likes gardening and spending time with pets.