PHP, Simple export to csv tutorial for magento

Here is a very simple code you can use to generate your csv file :

    unlink("upload.csv");
    $handle_out = fopen("upload.csv", "a");
    $fields_put=array('sku', 'name', 'price', 'short_description', 'description', 'attribute_set', 'type',
        'status', 'visibility', 'tax_class_id', 'category_ids', 'weight');
    fputcsv($handle_out, $fields_put, '|' ,'"');
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
    {
        
        
        $description=ereg_replace( "\r\n", "", $row['short_description']);
        $description=ereg_replace( "\r\t", "", $description);
        $description=ereg_replace( "\r", "", $description);
        $description=ereg_replace( "\t", "", $description);
        $description=ereg_replace( "\n", "", $description);        
        $description=ereg_replace( "\xA0", "", $description);        
        $description=ereg_replace( "\x0B", "", $description);
        //$description=ereg_replace( '"', '""', $description);
        
            
        
        $values_put=array($row['sku'], $row['name'], $row['price'], $description, 
        $description, 'Default', 'simple',
        'Enabled', 'Catalog, Search', 'None', '2', '1');
    

        fputcsv($handle_out, $values_put, '|' ,'"');
    }

First line of code simply remove the already made file. Because if it does not remove the file first it will append the data to already opened file  due to fopen using mode 'a'. In this line

fputcsv($handle_out, $fields_put, '|' ,'"');

We are creating the field names for the for the csv file or column headings as it will be the first row of the csv file.

Then we are looping through are mysql record set to add each row in the csv.

This code:

$description=ereg_replace( "\r\n", "", $row['short_description']);
        $description=ereg_replace( "\r\t", "", $description);
        $description=ereg_replace( "\r", "", $description);
        $description=ereg_replace( "\t", "", $description);
        $description=ereg_replace( "\n", "", $description);        
        $description=ereg_replace( "\xA0", "", $description);        
        $description=ereg_replace( "\x0B", "", $description);
        $description=ereg_replace( '"', '""', $description);

Basically removes all the hidden un required characters like line breaks and tabs and some other hidden characters which causes the csv file not being imported properly in some softwares like magento. I wrote this code for magneto because in magento the CSV files was taking some hidden characters as the indication for a new CSV row which was not the case.

If you need further help importing products in magento please post in comments.