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phparrayscsvexplode

PHP explode comma separated string into array

Lets say I have a text field with the following data. Lines starting with # are comments. The first line is the column headers and values are comma separated. 

# some instruction
# some instruction
Day,Open,Close
Monday,09:00,17:00
Tuesday,09:00,18:00

How can I explode this to get an array like this:

$openingTimes = [
   ['Day' => 'Monday', 'Open' => '09:00', 'Close' => '17:00'],
   ['Day' => 'Tuesday', 'Open' => '09:00', 'Close' => '18:00'],
];
Solution

  • If you first split the text field by a new line, then process each line one at a time.

    Ignore anything starting with a # (the $line[0] == '#' bit).

    Use str_getcsv() to split the line into separate fields (allowing for quoted fields etc.) Then if there hasn't been a header so far, then store this split value as the header. If there has been a header, then add this new data as part of the output, combining it with array_combine()...

    $input = '# some instruction
# some instruction
Day,Open,Close
Monday,09:00,17:00
Tuesday,09:00,18:00';

$lines = explode(PHP_EOL, $input);
$header = null;
$output = [];
foreach ( $lines as $line ) {
    if ( $line[0] == '#' )  {
        continue;
    }
    $data = str_getcsv($line);
    if ( $header == null )  {
        $header = $data;
    }
    else    {
        $output[] = array_combine($header, $data);
    }
}

print_r($output);