Data Export Development Tutorials, Guides & Insights

Here’s the complete example of how to export user data to a CSV file in a Laravel controller method:

use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Response;

public function exportUsersToCsv()
{
    // Step 1: Retrieve user data
    $users = User::all();

    // Step 2: Define the CSV file path
    $filePath = storage_path('exports/users.csv');

    // Step 3: Open the CSV file for writing
    $file = fopen($filePath, 'w');

    // Step 4: Write the CSV header
    $header = ['Name', 'Email', 'Registration Date'];
    fputcsv($file, $header);

    // Step 5: Write data rows
    foreach ($users as $user) {
        $rowData = [
            $user->name,
            $user->email,
            $user->created_at->format('Y-m-d'), // Format the date to Year-Month-Day
        ];
        fputcsv($file, $rowData);
    }

    // Step 6: Close the file
    fclose($file);

    // Step 7: Return the CSV file as a download response
    return response()->download($filePath)->deleteFileAfterSend(true);
}

To export only the database schema without data, use the --no-data option:

mysqldump -u your_username -p --no-data your_database_name > schema_backup.sql