Codeigniter force download CSV file bug - codeigniter

Question

Here's the problem
I wanted to convert my data into csv format and download it. everything is fine, until the csv file that i had downloaded and there's a little bug on the file which there will be a space at the first line of the file.
for example
Before force download
"name","age",
"brad pit","40",`
After force download
"name","age",
"brad pit","40",
The csv file that i had downloaded and I try to open wit my excel will appear like this
"name" |age
brad pit|40
I believe that is because of the csv file that i had downloaded appeared an external space line in the first line of the data.
Here's the code
//write csv data
$data = $this->dbutil->csv_from_result($query, $delimiter);
//create random file name
$name = rand().'_salesperson_data_'.date('d-m-y').'.csv';
if ( ! write_file('./csv/'.$name, $data))
{
echo 'Unable to write the CSV file';
}
else
{
//perform download
$file = file_get_contents("./csv/".$name); // Read the file's contents
$filename = 'salesperson_data_'.date('d-m-y').'.csv';
force_download($filename, $file);
}
source of force_download()
if ( ! function_exists('force_download'))
{
function force_download($filename = '', $data = '')
{
if ($filename == '' OR $data == '')
{
return FALSE;
}
// Try to determine if the filename includes a file extension.
// We need it in order to set the MIME type
if (FALSE === strpos($filename, '.'))
{
return FALSE;
}
// Grab the file extension
$x = explode('.', $filename);
$extension = end($x);
// Load the mime types
#include(APPPATH.'config/mimes'.EXT);
// Set a default mime if we can't find it
if ( ! isset($mimes[$extension]))
{
$mime = 'application/octet-stream';
}
else
{
$mime = (is_array($mimes[$extension])) ? $mimes[$extension][0] : $mimes[$extension];
}
// Generate the server headers
if (strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], "MSIE"))
{
header('Content-Type: "'.$mime.'"');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$filename.'"');
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
header('Pragma: public');
header("Content-Length: ".strlen($data));
}
else
{
header('Content-Type: "'.$mime.'"');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$filename.'"');
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
header('Expires: 0');
header('Pragma: no-cache');
header("Content-Length: ".strlen($data));
}
exit($data);
}
}
i thought TRIM will be last solution for me and I try to put any where possible but is stil the same. I couldn't found any solution for this problem. Please help. this stuck me for 2days already.
Thanks in advanced.

Answer 1

I don't know if need to use CSV only, but a good plugin/function that I use is this one: http://codeigniter.com/wiki/Excel_Plugin/
It's works with CodeIgniter Query system for exporting stuff to Excel. I use it a lot and never have problems with it.

Answer 2

try to print on the browser, if you see some extra space then remove.
if the extra is still on the csv file when you download, then this extra space is coming from any of your include file.
when you start writing your code try not to leave some space on the top/bottom of the code.

Answer 3

Use ob_clean(); before writing CSV to remove White spaces.