csv_to_array.php

<?php
/**
 * Convert a comma separated file into an associated array.
 * The first row should contain the array keys.
 * 
 * Example:
 * 
 * @param string $filename Path to the CSV file
 * @param string $delimiter The separator used in the file
 * @param boolean $asHash Use header row as keys in the returned array
 * @return array
 * @link http://gist.github.com/385876
 * @author Jay Williams <http://myd3.com/>
 * @copyright Copyright (c) 2010, Jay Williams
 * @license http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php MIT License
 */
function csv_to_array($filename = '', $delimiter = ',', $asHash = true) {
    if (!(is_readable($filename) || (($status = get_headers($filename)) && strpos($status[0], '200')))) {
        return FALSE;
    }
 
    $header = NULL;
    $data = array();
    if (($handle = fopen($filename, 'r')) !== FALSE) {
        if ($asHash) {
            while ($row = fgetcsv($handle, 0, $delimiter)) {
                if (!$header) {
                    $header = $row;
                } else {
                    $data[] = array_combine($header, $row);
                }
            }
        } else {
            while ($row = fgetcsv($handle, 0, $delimiter)) {
                $data[] = $row;
            }
        }
 
        fclose($handle);
    }
 
    return $data;
}

/**
 * Example
 */
print_r(csv_to_array('example.csv'));

example.csv

result.txt

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [name] => Lorem
            [number] => 11
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [name] => ipsum
            [number] => 22
        )

)

Thanks for providing this update to the csv_to_array() function. I've just updated my code to this and all works great!

One suggestion on your code is to replace:

$header = $row;

with:

$header = array_map('trim', $row);

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how to trim the header row but then found the answer on the original gist!