How to import a csv choosing which columns to import

[AdRock]

I am importing a text/csv file and instead of importing all of the 'columns' (there are 15 columns on each line), I would like to import column number 1, 4, 15.

 

I have the following code that will import the whole file into an array which works fine but i don't want the whole file in the array becuase I also need to do something like array_unique() where i filter out any duplicates once I have my 3 columns imported into an array.

 

My question is:

 

1.  How do i import the file to only read in the columns i want

 

2. Once I have all the data into an array , how do i get all the unique rows (so in theory the array size could be halved)

 

Any help greatly appreciated

# Open the File.
    if (($handle = fopen($files, "r")) !== FALSE) {
        # Set the parent multidimensional array key to 0.
        $nn = 0;
        while (($data = fgetcsv($handle, 1000, "|")) !== FALSE) {
            # Count the total keys in the row.
            $c = count($data);
            # Populate the multidimensional array.
            for ($x=0;$x<$c;$x++)
            {
                $csvarray[$nn][$x] = $data[$x];
            }
            $nn++;
        }
        # Close the File.
        fclose($handle);
        
        //rename('imports/' . $files, 'archived/' . $files);
    }

[Ch0cu3r]

Before the while loop setup an array which contains the columns you want to get from $data.

$targetColumns = array(0, 3, 14); // get data from the 1st, 4th and 15th column

Now replace

            # Count the total keys in the row.
            $c = count($data);
            # Populate the multidimensional array.
            for ($x=0;$x<$c;$x++)
            {
                $csvarray[$nn][$x] = $data[$x];
            }

With

    	$targetData = array();                  // array that hold target data
    	foreach($targetColumns as $column)      // loop throught the targeted columns array
    		$targetData[] = $data[$column]; // get the data from the column

        # Populate the multidimensional array.
        $csvarray[$nn] = $targetData;       // add target data to csvarray

Now $csvarray should contain just your targeted data.

 

For array_unique are you wanting to apply it to the three columns ($targetData) or to the whole of $csvarray?

Edited October 10, 2013 by Ch0cu3r