What are some considerations for structuring CSV files in a way that facilitates easier parsing and manipulation in PHP, especially when dealing with multi-line entries?

When dealing with multi-line entries in CSV files, it is important to structure the file in a way that makes parsing and manipulation easier in PHP. One way to achieve this is by using a unique delimiter to separate each field within a multi-line entry. This delimiter should be different from the standard comma used to separate fields in a CSV file. By using a unique delimiter, you can easily identify the start and end of each multi-line entry when parsing the file in PHP. 

// Example of structuring a CSV file with multi-line entries using a unique delimiter

$delimiter = '|'; // Unique delimiter for multi-line entries
$csvFile = 'example.csv';

// Read the CSV file into an array
$rows = array_map('str_getcsv', file($csvFile));

// Loop through each row and handle multi-line entries
foreach ($rows as $row) {
    // Check if the row contains the unique delimiter
    if (strpos($row[0], $delimiter) !== false) {
        // Split the row into multiple lines based on the unique delimiter
        $multiLines = explode($delimiter, $row[0]);
        
        // Process each line separately
        foreach ($multiLines as $line) {
            // Handle each line as needed
            echo $line . PHP_EOL;
        }
    } else {
        // Handle single-line entries as usual
        echo $row[0] . PHP_EOL;
    }
}

Keywords

CSV files parsing manipulation multi-line entries PHP functions

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