What are best practices for ensuring proper formatting when exporting data to CSV for Excel use?

When exporting data to CSV for Excel use, it is important to ensure proper formatting to avoid any issues with data interpretation. One common issue is when Excel misinterprets data types, such as treating numbers as text. To solve this, you can add a BOM (Byte Order Mark) at the beginning of the CSV file to specify the encoding and prevent Excel from misinterpreting the data types. 

// Add BOM to ensure proper formatting for Excel
$csv = "\xEF\xBB\xBF"; // UTF-8 BOM
$csv .= "Header1,Header2,Header3\n";
$csv .= "Data1,Data2,Data3\n";

// Output CSV file
header('Content-Type: text/csv');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="export.csv"');
echo $csv;
exit;

Keywords

PHP CSV Excel formatting data export

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