3 Steps To Import CSV Into MYSQL In PHP (Simple Example)

Welcome to a quick tutorial on how to import CSV files into an MYSQL database in PHP. Want to allow administrators to upload their own set of data into the database? Yes, it is actually pretty easy to do in PHP.

That covers the basic steps, let us walk through an actual example in this guide, read on!

ⓘ I have included a zip file with all the example source code at the start of this tutorial, so you don’t have to copy-paste everything… Or if you just want to dive straight in.

 

 

QUICK SLIDES

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Download & Notes	Import CSV	Useful Bits & Links
Tutorial Video	The End

 

 

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Click here to download the source code, I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

QUICK NOTES

• Create a test database and import 1a-users.sql.
• Change the database settings in 3-import.php to your own.
• Access 2-upload.html in the browser and upload 1b-users.csv.

If you spot a bug, please feel free to comment below. I try to answer questions too, but it is one person versus the entire world… If you need answers urgently, please check out my list of websites to get help with programming.

 

 

STEP 1) DUMMY USERS TABLE & CSV

USERS TABLE

CREATE TABLE `users` (
  `user_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `user_email` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `user_name` varchar(255) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

ALTER TABLE `users`
  ADD PRIMARY KEY (`user_id`),
  ADD UNIQUE KEY `user_email` (`user_email`),
  ADD KEY `user_name` (`user_name`);

ALTER TABLE `users`
  MODIFY `user_id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT;

For this example, we will be using a dummy users table. Pretty straightforward with only 3 fields –

• user_id ID, primary key.
• user_email The user’s email.
• user_name The user’s name.

USERS CSV

jane@doe.com	Jane Doe
joe@doe.com	Joe Doe
john@doe.com	John Doe

That’s right… Just a whole bunch of user emails and names.

 

 

STEP 2) CSV FILE UPLOAD

<form action="3-import.php" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
  <input type="file" name="upcsv" accept=".csv" required/>
  <input type="submit" value="Upload"/>
</form>

This is nothing but a very simple HTML file upload form – It only accepts CSV files. Actually, this is optional if you are getting the CSV from somewhere else – An automated script to fetch a CSV file from another server, the user has to manually copy to a secured drive, etc…

 

 

STEP 3) PHP IMPORT CSV

<?php
// (A) CONNECT TO DATABASE - CHANGE SETTINGS TO YOUR OWN!
$dbHost = 'localhost';
$dbName = 'test';
$dbChar = 'utf8';
$dbUser = 'root';
$dbPass = '';
try {
  $pdo = new PDO(
    "mysql:host=".$dbHost.";dbname=".$dbName.";charset=".$dbChar,
    $dbUser, $dbPass, [PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION]
  );
} catch (Exception $ex) { exit($ex->getMessage()); }
 
// (B) READ UPLOADED CSV
$fh = fopen($_FILES["upcsv"]["tmp_name"], "r");
if ($fh === false) { exit("Failed to open uploaded CSV file"); }
 
// (C) IMPORT ROW BY ROW
while (($row = fgetcsv($fh)) !== false) {
  try {
    // print_r($row);
    $stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO `users` (`user_name`, `user_email`) VALUES (?,?)");
    $stmt->execute([$row[0], $row[1]]);
  } catch (Exception $ex) { echo $ex->getmessage(); }
}
fclose($fh);
echo "DONE.";

Not going to explain this line-by-line, but it should be straightforward enough:

1. Connect to the database. Remember to change the settings to your own.
2. Try to open the uploaded CSV file.
3. Finally, read and import the CSV file into the database row-by-row.

That’s all, a basic import is really that simple.

 

 

EXTRA) RECOMMENDATIONS & TIPS

<?php
// (A) SET TIME LIMIT (SECONDS)
set_time_limit(300);

// (B) DATA CHECK
while (($row = fgetcsv($fh)) !== false) {
  if (!filter_var($row[1], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
    echo "INVALID EMAIL FORMAT - " . $row[1];
    continue;
  }
}

The above example will work well enough, but you can expect things to go wrong. A few common “errors”:

• The script will timeout on importing large datasets. We can “fix” this problem by setting the timeout with set_time_limit(300).
• The annoying “user error”, messing up the columns. For example, swapping the email and name columns… Simply add your own checks on the data while importing each-and-every row.
• Then, there is also the problem with impatient users. They couldn’t wait for the script to end, reload and import again, ending up with duplicate entries. Impose your own unique keys in the database to prevent duplicates.

 

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

• File Open – PHP
• File Get CSV – PHP
• Set Time Limit – PHP
• PDO (Database Object) – PHP

 

TUTORIAL VIDEO

 

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