Too many commas in a CSV file

[stevepatd]

I'm trying to parse a csv file.  The user sometimes enters commas into a field in Excel.  Excel will then put quotes around that field that has commas in it when creating the csv file.  Now my fields are all off because of these user entries with commas.  I tried using an fgetcsv thinking it may handle this situation but I get an error with an "Array to string conversion" .  How do I manipulate these lines that have commas within quotes in a csv file?

 

$student = trim(fgets($fh));

$line = explode(",",$student); 

 

 

[PFMaBiSmAd]

You should use fgetcsv and if you want help with the error you got when using it, you would need to post your code and the error message.

[stevepatd]

When I use the fgetcsv I get this. - thanks for the help.

 

  $fh        = fopen("file.csv",'r');

  $student = trim(fgetcsv($fh));

 

Error message is

Notice: Array to string conversion on my second line.

[BlueSkyIS]

Does the notice really say "on my second line"???

 

I doubt the error is caused by either of those lines posted. it really helps if we can see all pertinent code and especially the lines up to and including "my second line".

[BlueSkyIS]

on the other hand, i'm probably wrong. you can't use trim() on an array.

 

$student = trim(fgetcsv($fh)); // No!

[BlueSkyIS]

example of fgetcsv from manual:

 

$handle = fopen("test.csv", "r");
while (($data = fgetcsv($handle, 1000, ",")) !== FALSE) {
    $num = count($data);
    echo "<p> $num fields in line $row: <br /></p>\n";
    $row++;
    for ($c=0; $c < $num; $c++) {
        echo $data[$c] . "<br />\n";
    }
}
fclose($handle);

[jcbones]

if you have to trim the results, you can use array_map().

 

$student = array_map('trim',fgetcsv($fh));