Here's a PHP function that reads the Half.com data file and returns it as an array.

There is a PHP function to read CSV files: fgetscv(), but it turns out that function doesn't read CSV files produced by Excel.

Note: a new version of this CSV class is posted to the PHP notebook.

The code needs some revision.

<?php
include('CSV.class.php');

function readHDCFile($path)
{
        $o = array();
        $p = new CSV();
        $fh = fopen($path,'r');
        fgets($fh); // get rid of the first line
        while ($data = fgets($fh))
        {
                $row = $p->textToArray( $data );
                $o[$row[5]] = array(
                                'ItemID' => $row[0],
                                'ISBN' => $row[4],
                                'Title' => $row[5],
                                'Category' => $row[8],
                                'Price' => $row[10],
                                'Condition' => $row[11],
                                'Notes' => $row[12],
                                'URL' => 'http://shops.half.ebay.com/declutter69_W0QQ'
                        );
        }
        return $o;
}

CSV.class.php:

<?php
define('CSV_TAB',"\t");

class CSV {
        var $template;

        /**
         * @param array $template
         *
         * The $template is an array used to selectively quote fields.
         * If the Nth element is 'quote', the Nth field will be quoted.
         * For example, array('','','quote') causes the 3rd field to be
         * quoted.
         */
        function CSV( $template = NULL )
        {
                $this->template = $template;
        }

        function arrayToText( &$ar, $separator=',' )
        {
                $row = array();
                reset($ar);
                $count=0;
                foreach($ar as $field)
                {
                        if ($this->template[$count] != 'quote')
                        {
                                $field = '"'.$this->quote($field).'"';
                        }
                        $row[] = $field;
                        $count++;
                }
                return join($separator,$row);
        }

        /**
         * Parses one line of a csv file.
         */
        function &textToArray( $str, $separator=',' )
        {
                $out = array();
                while($str)
                {
                        if (preg_match('/^"/', $str))
                        {
                                if (preg_match("/\"(.+?)\"$separator(.+)$/", $str, $matches))
                                {
                                        $head = $this->dequote($matches[1]);
                                        $str = $matches[2];
                                }
                                else // assume it's the last element
                                {
                                        $head = $this->dequote($str);
                                        $str = '';
                                }
                        }
                        else
                        {
                                if (preg_match("/^$separator/",$str))
                                {
                                        // this is a special case of a null field
                                        // it's exceptional, because the . metachar matches
                                        // non-whitespace, and our separator might be whitespace
                                        $head = '';
                                        $str = substr($str,1);
                                }
                                else if (preg_match("/(.+?)$separator(.+)$/", $str, $matches))
                                {
                                        $head = $matches[1];
                                        $str = $matches[2];
                                }
                                else // assume it's the last element
                                {
                                        $head = $str;
                                        $str = '';
                                }
                        }
                        $out[] = $head;
                }
                return $out;
        }

        function quote( $s )
        {
                $s = preg_replace('/"/','""', $s);
                return $s;
        }

        function dequote( $s )
        {
                $s = preg_replace('/""/','"', $s);
                return $s;
        }
}