Generate a CSV file from a multidimensional array in php

Question

I can tell by looking at this code that I've gone about this in the wrong way. Provided the string is correctly formatted (each index ofCSVData[][], would the following generate a CSV file?

There must be a more elegant way of taking my queries and building a CSV. Looking at this code kinda makes me sick in the stomach.

class ShippingCSVGenerator
{
 public function generateShippingCSV($invoiceArray)
 { 
 $invoiceArray = $this->filterInvoices($invoiceArray);
 if(empty($invoiceArray))
 {
 // no parcels to fetch
 return;
 }
 $dispatchDataRes = \DispatchDataQuery::create()
 ->where('DispatchData.printed = ?', $invoiceArray)
 ->find();
 $index = 0;
 $CSVData = [];
 foreach($dispatchDataRes as $orders)
 {
 $parcelsRes = \ItemsInDispatchQuery::create()
 ->where('ItemsInDispatch.orderNumber = ?', $orders->orderNumber)
 ->find();
 $parcelIndex = 0;
 foreach($parclesRes as $parcel)
 {
 $CSVData[$index][$parcelIndex] = 
 $orders->orderNumber() . ',' .
 $orders->date() . ',' .
 $orders->toName() . ',' .
 $orders->destinationBuilding() . ',' .
 $orders->destinationStreet() . ',' .
 $orders->suburb() . ',' .
 $orders->unused_7() . ',' .
 $orders->postcode() . ',' .
 $orders->state() . ',' .
 $orders->country() . ',' .
 $orders->email() . ',' .
 $orders->phone() . ',' .
 $orders->itemName() . ',' .
 $orders->itemPrice() . ',' .
 $orders->instructions() . ',' .
 $parcel->weight() . ',' .
 $orders->shippingMethod() . ',' .
 $parcelIndex . ',' .
 $orders->SKU() . ',' .
 $orders->quantity() . ',' .
 $orders->unused_21() . ',' .
 $orders->unused_22() . ',' .
 $orders->unused_23() . ',' .
 $orders->unused_24() . ',' .
 $parcel->height() . ',' .
 $parcel->width() . ',' .
 $parcel->length() . ',' .
 $orders->courier() . ',' .
 $orders->unused_29() . ',' .
 $orders->unused_30();
 $parcelIndex++;
 }
 $index++;
 }
 header("Content-Type: text/csv");
 header('Content-disposition: attachment;filename=shipping.csv');
 $fp = fopen("php://output", "w");
 fputcsv ($fp, $header, "\t");
 foreach($CSVData as $order)
 {
 foreach($csvOrder as $csvParcel)
 {
 fputcsv($fp, $csvParcel, "\n");
 }
 }
 fclose($fp);
 }
 private function filterInvoices($invoiceArray)
 {
 if(empty($invoiceArray))
 {
 // no parcels to fetch
 return;
 }
 $filteredInvoices = [];
 $dispatchDataRes = \DispatchDataQuery::create()
 ->where('DispatchData.printed = ?', $invoiceArray)
 ->find();
 if($dispatchDataRes->isEmpty())
 {
 // no parcels to fetch
 return;
 }
 else
 {
 foreach($dispatchDataRes as $invoicesToFetch)
 {
 $filteredInvoices = $invoicesToFetch->getInvoiceNumber();
 }
 }
 return $filteredInvoices;
 }
}

• maxb: How come you're fetching all attributes through function calls? why not do e.g. $orders->orderNumber? With a structure like that, you could just do foreach ($orders as $key => $value) { ... } and loop through all attributes. Otherwise you could do something like foreach ($my_keys as $key) {$output_string .= $orders->$key . ',';}.
• Binary Impact BIG: Typo in csv writing foreach. Secong foreach should be foreach($order as $csvParcel)

Answer 1

Encapsulate the csv line generation in another function.

function GenerateCSVlineFromArray($array){
 $line = "";
 foreach ($array as $value){
 $line .= $value .",";
 }
 //cut last comma
 $line = substr($line, 0, strlen($line) -1);
 return $line;
}

Assuming you have already the right order of values.