Exporting data to csv in WordPress with PHP

In WordPress plugin development, sometimes you may need to export data to a csv file. Here we share how to implement it with PHP code.

How to export a csv file with PHP code

header() is used to send a raw HTTP header. To export a generated csv file, use below headers to tell the browser display a save dialog.

header( 'Content-Type: text/csv' ); // Supply the mime type
header( 'Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="downloaded.pdf"' ); // Supply a file name to save

Note:

There is not official RFC document for CSV files. text/csv is not a standard mime type, but it is more clear and works fine. application/octet-stream can also be used for csv files. However it is a very generous and it does not hint which application should be used to open the file.

Use two more headers to tell the content should not be cached by browser or any caches between the server and the browser.

header( "Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate" );
header( "Expires: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT" ); // Date in the past

Then echo the generated csv content directly:

echo $csv;
exit;

Note:

Any actual content must be output after header(). One common error is outputting content before header() by include or require a file. See more about header().

Below is the full example.

Example: Export data to csv in WordPress

Add an export button：

<a href="admin.php?page=export_example&export=table&noheader=1">Export</a>

Don’t forget add the argument named “noheader”. Otherwise, the csv content will directly be printed and there will be no Save dialog box popping up in the browser.

Process the export in the same file:

<?php
$table_head = array( 'column1', 'column2', 'column3' );
$table_body = array(
    array( 'a', 'b', 'c' ),
    array( 'd', 'e', 'f' )
);

// Process export
if( isset( $_GET['export'] ) ) {
    $csv = implode( $table_head, ',' );
    $csv .= "n"; // important! Make sure to use use double quotation marks.
    foreach( table_body as row ) {
        $csv .= implode( $row, ',' );
        $csv .= "n";
    }

    $filename = 'table.csv';    
    header( 'Content-Type: text/csv' ); // tells browser to download
    header( 'Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . $filename .'"' );
    header( 'Pragma: no-cache' ); // no cache
    header( "Expires: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT" ); // expire date

    echo $csv;
    exit;
}
?>
<a href="admin.php?page=export_example&export=table&noheader=1">Export</a>

This example works well on Firefox, IE, Chrome.

Export data with Unicode characters to utf-8 bom csv

If your data contains Unicode characters, you may want to export a utf-8 bom csv that Excel will read properly. To achieve that, just output the BOM mark before data:

echo "xEFxBBxBF"; // UTF-8 BOM
echo $csv;
exit;