PHP Postgtres Generate CSV File for Download

Question

I have a postgresql database table and using PHP for the backend. On the user interface, I provide users with a way of generating reports. What I want to do is that when a user wishes to generate a report, a CSV file should be provided for download.

I already know how to generate a CSV file for results of a query, but now in this case I don't want the file to be saved on disk. Instead, it should be downloaded by the browser.

Answer 1

You simply need to provide a page for download...

#downloadCSV.php?reportID=1

header('Content-Type: text/plain');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="yourfile.csv"');
// do your postgresql query and put the result into $csv
echo $csv;

In this way you don't have to create a real file on your server

The second header Content-Disposition: attachment; forces the browser to download a file instead to show the content in a page