I use a generic algorithm to write CSV files that in theory works for the major OSes. However, the client started to use Mac a few weeks ago, and they keep telling me the CSV file cannot be read in Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac 12.2.1.
They have their OS configured to use "semicolon ;" as list separator, which is exactly what I am writing in the CSV. They also say, that when they open the file in notepad, they have noticed there are no linebreaks, everything is displayed in a single line; which is why Excel cannot read the file properly; but in my code, I am using the cross-browser line break \r\n
This is the full code I use:
header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
// Output to browser with appropriate mime type, you choose ;)
header("Content-type: text/x-csv");
//header("Content-type: text/csv");
//header("Content-type: application/csv");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=participantes.csv");
$separator = ";";
$rs = $sql->doquery("SELECT A QUERY TO RETRIEVE DATA FROM THE DB");
$header = "";
$num_fields = mysql_num_fields($rs);
for($i=0; $i<$num_fields; $i++){
$field = mysql_field_name($rs, $i);
$header .= $field.$separator;
}
echo $header."\r\n";
while($row = $sql->fetch($rs)){
$str = "";
for($i=0; $i<$num_fields; $i++){
$field = mysql_field_name($rs, $i);
$value = str_replace(";", ",", $row->{$field});
$value = str_replace("\n", ",", $value);
$value = str_replace("\d", ",", $value);
$value = str_replace(chr(13), ",", $value);
$str .= $value.$separator;
}
echo $str."\r\n";
}
Is there anything I can do so Mac users can read the file properly?
For debugging purposes: