Proper PHP Headers for CSV Documents (All Browsers)

CSV or comma separated variable files are a common way of storing and transferring data from web applications or databases. These handy files can easily be opened as a spreadsheet in common editing programs like Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, or Open Office Calc.

Most developers have no problem generating a CSV document but many have had problems determining the proper headers to send prior to outputting the content of a PHP variable containing CSV information. Many articles have been written on the topic but very few if any contain headers that work in all browsers in including Internet Explorer 6-9 (IE 6,7,8, and 9). Many of the header combinations available online will work in Firefox and Safari but will fail when trying to force download of a CSV in Internet Explorer.

The following CSV document header code example has been tested and works in all major browsers. When run, it will generate a CSV file using PHP, store it in a variable called CSV, then echo the contents of the CSV to the browser.

(Note: For this to work properly this needs to be the only output created by the page. Your browser will see this output as a document and not standard HTML. Any other information on the page will cause the CSV to break or will result in header errors.)

	//NAME THE FILE
	$table = "test";

	//BUILD CSV CONTENT
	$csv = '"Column 1","Column 2"' . "n";
	
	//BUILD CSV ROWS
	$csv .= '"Column 1 Content","Column 2 Content"' . "n";
	$csv .= '"Column 1 Content","Column 2 Content"' . "n";
	$csv .= '"Column 1 Content","Column 2 Content"' . "n";
	$csv .= '"Column 1 Content","Column 2 Content"' . "n";
	$csv .= '"Column 1 Content","Column 2 Content"' . "n";

	//OUPUT HEADERS
	header("Pragma: public");
	header("Expires: 0");
	header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
	header("Cache-Control: private",false);
	header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
	header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="$table.csv";" );
	header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary"); 
	
	//OUTPUT CSV CONTENT
	echo($csv);						

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