CSV

A CSV (Comma-Separated Values) file is a plain text file format commonly used to store tabular data. Each line of the file represents a single row of data, and each value within a row is separated by a comma (,), hence the name "comma-separated values". However, other delimiters like semicolons (;) or tabs (\t) can also be used. CSV files are often used because they are easy to create and manipulate using text editors or spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. They're widely used for importing and exporting data between different software applications and databases.

CSV files are sometimes referred to as TSV (Tab-Separated Values) or DSV (Delimiter-Separated Values) due to the different format variations in delimiters.

CSV Formats

LiteCart tries to support the most common variations of non-standard CSV formats but the default standard is the one preferred.

Type: CSV
Delimiter: ,
Encapsulator: "
Escape Character: "
Character Encoding: UTF-8 without Byte Order Mark (w/o BOM)
Line Endings: Windows CR+LF

CSV Formats In Applications

Application                                                Format            Delimiter    Column Wrapper    Escape character      Encoding                      EOL                LiteCart Compliant      Comments
Google Docs Spreadsheet (Web application)                  CSV / TSV         , or TAB     "                 "                     Any                           CR / LF / CR+LF    **Yes**
Microsoft Office Excel 2010 (numerals with decimal point)  CSV (MS-Dos)      ,            "                 "                     UTF-8 w/o BOM                 CR+LF              No                      Excel 2011/Mac cannot correctly interpret a CSV file containing umlauts and diacritical marks no matter what encoding.
Microsoft Office Excel 2010 (numerals with decimal comma)  DSV (MS-Dos)      ;            "                 "                     UTF-8 w/o BOM                 CR+LF              No                      Excel 2011/Mac cannot correctly interpret a CSV file containing umlauts and diacritical marks no matter what encoding.
Microsoft Office Excel 2011 (numerals with decimal point)  DSV (Mac)         ,            "                 "                     Windows-1252, UTF-8 w/ BOM    CR                 No                      Many regional versions of Excel will not be able to deal with Unicode in CSV.
Microsoft Office Excel 2011 (numerals with decimal comma)  CSV (Mac)         ;            "                 "                     Windows-1252, UTF-8 w/ BOM    CR                 No                      Many regional versions of Excel will not be able to deal with Unicode in CSV.
LibreOffice Calc (Multi platform)                          CSV / DSV / TSV   Any          " or '            "                     Any                           CR / LF / CR+LF    **Yes**                 Supports all variations

w/ BOM = With Byte Order Mark

w/o BOM = Without Byte Order Mark

Encode CSV From Array

$csv = functions::csv_encode($array, $delimiter, $enclosure, $escape, $charset, $eol);

Decode CSV To Array

$array = functions::csv_decode($csv, $delimiter, $enclosure, $escape, $charset, $eol);

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