Need to title headers in CSV appropriately, instead of using table column headers

Question

I have a function that exports a table into a CSV file, then I open that file using a spreadsheet application.

Is there a way to set the header of the CSV to name each column appropriately.

For example:

I have a table the contains first name, last name, email, and comments.

And the table is set as: fname, lname, email, comments

So the table exports as:

fname, lname, email, comments
john, doe, [email protected], I am John Doe this is my comment

I want to change the headers (fname, lname, email, comments) to something more readable, so it would be like this:

First Name, Last Name, Email, Comments
john, doe, [email protected], I am John Doe this is my comment

Here is the code I have:

function exportNamesCommentsCSV($table,$filename = 'volunteer_2009_comments.csv') {
    $csv_terminated = "\n";
    $csv_separator = ",";
    $csv_enclosed = '"';
    $csv_escaped = "\\";
    $sql_query = "select lname, fname, comments from volunteers_2009";

    // Gets the data from the database
    $result = mysql_query($sql_query);
    $fields_cnt = mysql_num_fields($result);

    $schema_insert = '';

    for ($i = 0; $i < $fields_cnt; $i++) {
        $l = $csv_enclosed . str_replace($csv_enclosed, $csv_escaped . $csv_enclosed,
            stripslashes(mysql_field_name($result, $i))) . $csv_enclosed;
        $schema_insert .= $l;
        $schema_insert .= $csv_separator;
    } // end for

    $out = trim(substr($schema_insert, 0, -1));
    $out .= $csv_terminated;

    // Format the data
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
        $schema_insert = '';
        for ($j = 0; $j < $fields_cnt; $j++) {
            if ($row[$j] == '0' || $row[$j] != '') {

                if ($csv_enclosed == '') {
                    $schema_insert .= $row[$j];
                } else {
                    $schema_insert .= $csv_enclosed . 
                    str_replace($csv_enclosed, $csv_escaped . $csv_enclosed, $row[$j]) . $csv_enclosed;
                }
            } else {
                $schema_insert .= '';
            }

            if ($j < $fields_cnt - 1) {
                $schema_insert .= $csv_separator;
            }
        } // end for

        $out .= $schema_insert;
        $out .= $csv_terminated;
    } // end while

    header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
    header("Content-Length: " . strlen($out));
    header("Content-type: text/x-csv");
    header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$filename");
    echo $out;
    exit;
}

Are the columns in your query in the correct order? Should it be fname followed by lname instead. — stukelly
– stukelly, Commented Mar 28, 2009 at 19:36

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:24:18Z

2

The header of a CSV file is just the first line. So you'd change this block:

for ($i = 0; $i < $fields_cnt; $i++) {
    $l = $csv_enclosed . str_replace($csv_enclosed, $csv_escaped . $csv_enclosed,
            stripslashes(mysql_field_name($result, $i))) . $csv_enclosed;
    $schema_insert .= $l;
    $schema_insert .= $csv_separator;
} // end for

$out = trim(substr($schema_insert, 0, -1));
$out .= $csv_terminated;

You could change it to something very simple, along the lines of:

$out .= "First Name, Last Name, Email, Comments\n";

unless I have completely misunderstood your question.

Edit: Your example code shows one specific query. If it needs to work for multiple queries, you'll have to find a source of those friendly names. For example, you could pass the names in as an argument or store them in the database.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:24

CommunityBot

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answered Mar 28, 2009 at 19:13

derobert

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Comments

stukelly · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-28 19:33:55Z

2

You could change the query to rename the field names as required.

$sql_query = "select lname, fname, comments from volunteers_2009";

Becomes

$sql_query = "select fname as 'First Name', lname as 'Last Name'," 
           . "Comments from volunteers_2009";

answered Mar 28, 2009 at 19:33

stukelly

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