PHP regular expression to parse a CSV line [duplicate]

Question

Using: PHP 7

I need to parse a string from a CSV file and return the values in an array. I'm using preg_match_all, but have had no luck so far.

This is the string:

"494","1","41","2009-05-18","NULL","0","3","JONES,ZACK ZX",""

This is the PHP code:

<?php
 $s = '"494","1","41","2009-05-18","NULL","0","3","JONES,ZACK ZX",""' ;

 $p =  '(?<=^|,)(?:[^,"]+|")?(?=,|$)|(?<=^|,)".*?"(?=,|$)';

 $m = Array();

 $e = preg_match_all($p, $s, $m);

After it is executed, the $m array should contain all the string values, without the double-quote string enclosure character.

Would appreciate any help in getting the correct regular expression to use.

Can I ask why you're using a regular expression for this, rather than something like str_getcsv? — iainn
– iainn, Commented Apr 6, 2020 at 12:41
@iainn I tried str_getcsv, it did not produce the correct result. — Steve F
– Steve F, Commented Apr 6, 2020 at 12:42
Regex is not the tool for this. There's no reason why the built-in CSV parsing features of PHP would produce unintended results on a dataset as simple as the one you've provided. Trying to re-create a CSV parser in regex (especially to include all edge cases and escape sequences) is like re-inventing a perfectly good wheel. — esqew
– esqew, Commented Apr 6, 2020 at 12:44
@iainn I gave str_getcsv another try and it worked! I'll post my answer below. — Steve F
– Steve F, Commented Apr 6, 2020 at 12:45

Steve F · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-06 12:45:55Z

0

Following iainn's suggestion, I tried str_getcsv, and it worked!

Here is the answer:

$m = str_getcsv($s, ",", "\"");

answered Apr 6, 2020 at 12:45

Steve F

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