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---
layout: default
title: Basic Usage
---
# Basic usage
<p class="message-info"><strong>Tips:</strong> Even though you can use the following methods with the <code>League\Csv\Writer</code> object. It is recommended to do so with the <code>League\Csv\Reader</code> class to avoid losing the file cursor position and getting unexpected results when inserting new data.</p>
Once your CSV object is [instantiated](/7.0/instantiation) and [configured](/7.0/properties/), you can start interacting with the data using a number of methods available to you. For starters, you can iterate over your newly object to extract each CSV row using the `foreach` construct.
```php
$reader = Reader::createFromPath('/path/to/my/file.csv', 'r');
foreach ($reader as $index => $row) {
//do something meaningful here with $row !!
//$row is an array where each item represent a CSV data cell
//$index is the CSV row index
}
```
<p class="message-notice">You can do more complex iterations <a href="/7.0/reading/">using the query methods</a> available on the <code>League\Csv\Reader</code> class only.</a></p>
## Outputting the CSV
### __toString()
Use the `echo` construct on the instantiated object or use the `__toString` method to show the CSV full content.
```php
echo $reader;
// or
echo $reader->__toString();
```
### output($filename = null)
If you only wish to make your CSV downloadable by forcing a file download just use the `output` method to force the use of the output buffer on the CSV content.
<p class="message-notice"> Since version <code>7.0</code>, the method returns the number of characters read from the handle and passed through to the output.</p>
```php
header('Content-Type: text/csv; charset=UTF-8');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="name-for-your-file.csv"');
$reader->output();
die;
```
The output method can take an optional argument `$filename`. When present you
can even remove more headers.
```php
$reader->output("name-for-your-file.csv");
die;
```
The output methods **can only be affected by:**
- the [library stream filtering mechanism](/7.0/filtering/)
- the [BOM property](/7.0/bom/)
No other method or property have effect on them.
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