MAPS.md

Maps

The idea behind a map is that you can call an alias and it will read multiple fields from the file and return them as a string. After you've created your reader you need to add a map for any fields you want. Let's say I want to read an entire address at once, I would do so with the following:

Customers.csv

id	fname	lname	add	city	state	zip
1	George	Jetson	123 Main St	Anytown	ST	12345

$map = new Map('address', "%0\n%1, %2 %3", ['add', 'city', 'state', 'zip']);
$reader->addMap($map);

So instead of returning these independently, this would return a string formatted as follows:

123 Main St
Anytown, ST 12345

As you are reading through a file you can request $reader->address and it will read and output the formatted string as you've requested. Maps are available as long as that $reader object is available.

Another example would be wanting to concatenate first and last names together automatically for database insertion.

$map = new Map('name', "%0 %1", ['fname', 'lname']);
$reader->addMap($map);

$name = $reader->name;  // returns 'George Jetson' from the above example.