Set the delimiter, enclosure and escape character for CSV

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- Set the delimiter, enclosure and escape character for CSV

# SplFileObject::setCsvControl

(PHP 5 >= 5.2.0, PHP 7, PHP 8)

SplFileObject::setCsvControl — Set the delimiter, enclosure and escape character for CSV

### Description

public SplFileObject::setCsvControl(string `$separator` = ",", string `$enclosure` = "\"", string `$escape` = "\\"): void

Sets the delimiter, enclosure and escape character for parsing CSV fields.

### Parameters

`separator`

  The `separator` parameter sets the field separator. It must be a single byte character.

`enclosure`

  The `enclosure` parameter sets the field enclosure character. It must be a single byte character.

`escape`

  The `escape` parameter sets the escape character. It must be a single byte character or the empty string. The empty string (`""`) disables the proprietary escape mechanism.

  > Note: Usually an `enclosure` character is escaped inside a field by doubling it; however, the `escape` character can be used as an alternative. So for the default parameter values `""` and `\"` have the same meaning. Other than allowing to escape the `enclosure` character the `escape` character has no special meaning; it isn't even meant to escape itself.

  Warning

  As of PHP 8.4.0, depending on the default value of `escape` is deprecated. It needs to be provided explicitly either positionally or by the use of named arguments.

Warning

When `escape` is set to anything other than an empty string (`""`) it can result in CSV that is not compliant with » RFC 4180 or unable to survive a roundtrip through the PHP CSV functions. The default for `escape` is `"\\"` so it is recommended to set it to the empty string explicitly. The default value will change in a future version of PHP, no earlier than PHP 9.0.

### Return Values

No value is returned.

### Errors/Exceptions

Throws a ValueError if `separator` or `enclosure` is not one byte long.

Throws a ValueError if `escape` is not one byte long or the empty string.

### Changelog

Version | Description
--- | ---
8.4.0 | Relying on the default value of `escape` is now deprecated.
7.4.0 | The `escape` parameter now also accepts an empty string to disable the proprietary escape mechanism.

### Examples

Example #1 SplFileObject::setCsvControl() example

    <?php
    $file = new SplFileObject("data.csv");
    $file->setFlags(SplFileObject::READ_CSV);
    $file->setCsvControl('|');
    foreach ($file as $row) {
        list ($fruit, $quantity) = $row;
        // Do something with values
    }
    ?>

Contents of data.csv

    <?php
    apples|20
    bananas|14
    cherries|87
    ?>

### See Also

- SplFileObject::getCsvControl() - Get the delimiter, enclosure and escape character for CSV
- SplFileObject::fgetcsv() - Gets line from file and parse as CSV fields
- SplFileObject::fputcsv() - Write a field array as a CSV line
- fputcsv() - Format line as CSV and write to file pointer
- fgetcsv() - Gets line from file pointer and parse for CSV fields
- str_getcsv() - Parse a CSV string into an array