Mysql results not storing on a file

Question

I have a mysql statement and I would like to store the data it fetches in a csv file in tab format. I have used the following statment but it is not creating and storing the results when I run my file and no error files.

  $mytry =  "SELECT * FROM table WHERE `assigned` = '$id'
    INTO OUTFILE '/inactive/orders.csv'
    FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
    ENCLOSED BY '\"'
    LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'";

    mysql_query($mytry);

Or there a way I can write to file in a directory without prompting the user to download, this works but it prompts

    $sQuery="SELECT * FROM table WHERE `assigned` = '$id'";

$rResult = mysql_query( $sQuery) or die();
$count = mysql_num_fields($rResult);

$html = '<table border="1"><thead><tr>%s</tr><thead><tbody>%s</tbody></table>';
$thead = '';
$tbody = '';
$line = '<tr>%s</tr>';
for ($i = 0; $i < $count; $i++){      
  $thead .= sprintf('<th>%s</th>',mysql_field_name($rResult, $i));
}


while(false !== ($row = mysql_fetch_row($rResult))){
  $trow = '';

  foreach($row as $value){
   $trow .= sprintf('<td>%s</td>', $value);
  }

  $tbody .= sprintf($line, $trow);

}


header("Content-type: application/vnd.ms-excel; name='excel'");
header("Content-Disposition: filename=exportfile.xls");
header("Pragma: no-cache");
header("Expires: 0");

print sprintf($html, $thead, $tbody);
exit;

Answer 1

You might want to look into the following PHP function: http://php.net/manual/en/function.fputcsv.php

Fetch the data using your query and then save it to a variable. Then, use fputcsv to store the data to a file.

Also, I would discourage the usage of mysql_query , since it has now become deprecated (as well as the rest of mysql_* family). Furthermore, your code is vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. Read up on using PDO for database interaction .

Some more recommended reading to put you on the right track: http://www.phptherightway.com/#databases

EDIT: From what you have shown in your code sample, you simply output an HTML page to the browser, which gets downloaded right away because of the Content-Disposition header you set.