Ack, writing to a .csv, it doesn't like multiple lines??

darthmahon

hey there, ok using the following script to retrieve the answers off my database for a questionnaire so the user can view the answers.

// query database for answers not yet taken
	$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tbl_questionnaire");

// generate file and make writeable
$file = fopen("upload/questionnaire.csv", "wb");

// loop results
while($row = mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
	// data gathering
	$line = implode(",", $row) ."\n";

	// write data to file
	fwrite($file, $line);

	// mark answer as taken
	$sql = mysql_query("UPDATE tbl_questionnaire SET fld_taken='y'");

}

// close file
fclose($file);

Now, I have some textarea boxes so users can type as much as they want. Problem is, when it comes to writing the CSV file it puts different lines in different columns. It doesn't put them all in the same column.

Any ideas why, it's driving me nuts.

Cheers,
Chris

darthmahon

something else I just noticed.

if someone puts answer, answer, answer then it also puts those in seperate fields because there are commas...

would str_replace be a good idea here? or is there something else?

Cheers,
Chris

SpanKie

You will need to strip all , from the form data before you do your implode statement. Like you posted above .. its going to separate everytime it finds a comma.

so if someone were to write in a textbox:

"The quick, brown fox, jumps over the lazy dog"

its going to break that in 3 sections ...

str_replace will work for you ..

AstroTeg

Fully understanding how CSV files work will help:

Quotes around text strings.
Commas inside of quotes are ignored. Commas outside of quotes are field seperators
If its not in quotes, then treat it as a number (a lot of programs are pretty relaxed about this)
Carriage returns are allowed in CSV files (the idea is the parser is to wait until it encounters a closing double quote before finishing). Most Microsoft programs will understand the carriage returns. Other programs may not (such as Act). Its your call if you wish to remove them or not.

NOTE: These are NOT the official CSV rules. Just stuff I learned and there's probably stuff missing. Check google for more details...

You can remove the commas, but how will you retain the meaning of what the user entered? Or does it even matter?

rjrodger

You can find a full description of the CSV format here:
http://www.creativyst.com/Doc/Articles/CSV/CSV01.htm