Welcome to a tutorial on how to read a CSV file and display it as an HTML table in PHP. So you want to read a CSV file somewhere on the server, and generate an HTML table with it? Well, it is actually stupidly simple to do, no third-party libraries required – Read on for the example!
ⓘ I have included a zip file with all the source code at the start of this tutorial, so you don’t have to copy-paste everything… Or if you just want to dive straight in.
TLDR – QUICK SLIDES
Download & Notes
DOWNLOAD & NOTES
Firstly, here is the download link to the example code as promised.
QUICK NOTES
If you spot a bug, feel free to comment below. I try to answer short questions too, but it is one person versus the entire world… If you need answers urgently, please check out my list of websites to get help with programming.
EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD
Click here to download all the example source code, I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.
CSV TO HTML TABLE
All right, let us now get into the example of generating an HTML table from a CSV file.
PART 1) DUMMY CSV FILE
1-dummy.csv
Jo Doe,jo@doe.com,465785 Joa Doe,joa@doe.com,123456 Job Doe,job@doe.com,234567 Joe Doe,joe@doe.com,345678 Jog Doe,jog@doe.com,578456 Joh Doe,joh@doe.com,378945 Joi Doe,joi@doe.com,456789 Jon Doe,jon@doe.com,987654 Jor Doe,jor@doe.com,754642 Joy Doe,joy@doe.com,124578Let us start with the dummy CSV file. For the folks who have no idea of how a CSV (comma-separated values) file works:
- CSV files are just plain text.
- We use line breaks \r\n to indicate rows.
- We use commas , to indicate columns.
- If the cell contains a comma, the value will be enclosed in quotes. E.G. "Jon, Doe"
PART 2) CSV TO HTML TABLE
2-csv-table.php
That’s all for the tutorial, and here is a small section on some extras and links that may be useful to you.
THE FIRST ROW IS THE HEADER
$first = true; while (($row = fgetcsv($stream)) !== false) { echo "<tr>"; if ($first) { foreach ($row as $col) { echo "<th>$col</th>"; } $first = false; } else { foreach ($row as $col) { echo "<td>$col</td>"; } } echo "</tr>"; }Just add a simple <table id="demo"><?php // (A) OPEN CSV FILE $stream = fopen("1-dummy.csv", "r"); // (B) EXTRACT ROWS & COLS while (($row = fgetcsv($stream)) !== false) { echo "<tr>"; foreach ($row as $col) { echo "<td>$col</td>"; } echo "</tr>"; } // (C) CLOSE CSV FILE fclose($stream); ?></table>1 flag to output the first row as <table id="demo"><?php // (A) OPEN CSV FILE $stream = fopen("1-dummy.csv", "r"); // (B) EXTRACT ROWS & COLS while (($row = fgetcsv($stream)) !== false) { echo "<tr>"; foreach ($row as $col) { echo "<td>$col</td>"; } echo "</tr>"; } // (C) CLOSE CSV FILE fclose($stream); ?></table>2 header cells.
LINKS & REFERENCES
For you guys who are thinking “upload CSV file to the server, then use PHP to display it as a table” – There’s no need to do so. Although kind of limited at the time of writing, modern Javascript can directly read the CSV file and generate the HTML table. Check out “CSV As Table in Javascript” below.
- Display CSV As Table In Javascript – Code Boxx
- Simple Sortable Table With HTML Javascript – Code Boxx
- Ways To Read Files In PHP – Code Boxx
INFOGRAPHIC CHEAT SHEET
Thank you for reading, and we have come to the end. I hope that it has helped you to better understand, and if you want to share anything with this guide, please feel free to comment below. Good luck and happy coding!