# fgetcsv

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

fgetcsv — Gets line from file pointer and parse for CSV fields

### Description

array fgetcsv ( resource `$handle` [, int `$length` [, string `$delimiter` [, string `$enclosure` [, string `$escape` ]]]] )

Similar to fgets() except that fgetcsv() parses the line it reads for fields in CSV format and returns an array containing the fields read.

### Parameters

`handle`

  A valid file pointer to a file successfully opened by fopen(), popen(), or fsockopen().

`length`

  Must be greater than the longest line (in characters) to be found in the CSV file (allowing for trailing line-end characters). It became optional in PHP 5. Omitting this parameter (or setting it to 0 in PHP 5.0.4 and later) the maximum line length is not limited, which is slightly slower.

`delimiter`

  Set the field delimiter (one character only). Defaults as a comma.

`enclosure`

  Set the field enclosure character (one character only). Defaults as a double quotation mark.

`escape`

  Set the escape character (one character only). Defaults as a backslash (\)

### Return Values

Returns an indexed array containing the fields read.

> Note: A blank line in a CSV file will be returned as an array comprising a single null field, and will not be treated as an error.

> Note: If you are having problems with PHP not recognizing the line endings when reading files either on or created by a Macintosh computer, you might want to enable the auto_detect_line_endings run-time configuration option.

fgetcsv() returns `FALSE` on error, including end of file.

### ChangeLog

Version | Description
--- | ---
5.3.0 | The `escape` parameter was added
4.3.5 | fgetcsv() is now binary safe
4.3.0 | The `enclosure` parameter was added

### Examples

Example#1 Read and print the entire contents of a CSV file

`<?php
$row = 1;
$handle = fopen("test.csv", "r");
while (($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);
?>`

### Notes

> Note: Locale setting is taken into account by this function. If LANG is e.g. en_US.UTF-8, files in one-byte encoding are read wrong by this function.

### See Also

- str_getcsv()
- explode()
- file()
- pack()
- fputcsv()