sanix-darker/cisv

High-performance CSV parser with SIMD optimizations (AVX-512/AVX2) for PHP - 10-50x faster than fgetcsv

v0.4.7 2026-03-07 10:34 UTC

Requires

• php: >=8.1

Requires (Dev)

• phpunit/phpunit: ^9.0 || ^10.0 || ^11.0

Provides

• ext-cisv: 0.4.7

MIT

• Sanix Darker

• csv
• parser
• fast
• tsv
• high-performance
• delimiter
• simd
• avx
• avx2
• avx512

Extension name: ext-cisv

Supports Zend Thread Safety (ZTS): ✅

Supports non-Thread Safe mode (NTS): ✅

Supported operating systems: no restrictions

Configure flags:

• --enable-cisv Enable CISV high-performance CSV parser support

README

PHP extension distribution for CISV with SIMD-accelerated CSV parsing via native C code.

FEATURES

• Native extension parser for PHP
• Full parse API (parseFile, parseString)
• Row-by-row iterator API (openIterator / fetchRow)
• Fast row counting (CisvParser::countRows)
• Better memory behavior with iterator mode on very large files

INSTALLATION

FROM SOURCE

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/Sanix-Darker/cisv-php
cd cisv-php
make -C core/core all
cd cisv
phpize
./configure --enable-cisv
make -j"$(nproc)"
sudo make install

Then enable extension in php.ini:

extension=cisv.so

CORE DEPENDENCY (SUBMODULE)

This repository tracks cisv-core via the ./core git submodule.

To fetch the latest cisv-core (main branch) in your local clone:

git submodule update --init --remote --recursive

CI and release workflows also run this update command, so new cisv-core releases are pulled automatically during builds.

QUICK START

<?php

$parser = new CisvParser(['delimiter' => ',', 'trim' => true]);
$rows = $parser->parseFile('data.csv');
print_r($rows[0]);

API EXAMPLES

PARSE FILE AND STRING

<?php

$parser = new CisvParser(['trim' => true, 'skip_empty' => true]);
$fileRows = $parser->parseFile('data.csv');
$stringRows = $parser->parseString("id,name\n1,alice\n2,bob\n");

FAST ROW COUNTING

<?php

$total = CisvParser::countRows('large.csv');
echo "Rows: $total\n";

ITERATOR MODE (RECOMMENDED FOR HUGE FILES)

<?php

$parser = new CisvParser(['delimiter' => ',', 'trim' => true]);
$parser->openIterator('very_large.csv');

while (($row = $parser->fetchRow()) !== false) {
    if (!empty($row) && $row[0] === 'STOP') {
        break;
    }
    // process row
}

$parser->closeIterator();

EXAMPLES DIRECTORY

Runnable examples are available in examples/:

• basic.php
• iterator.php
• sample.csv

VALIDATION

php -d extension=cisv/modules/cisv.so cisv/scripts/verify_api.php

BENCHMARKS

docker build -t cisv-php-bench -f cisv/benchmarks/Dockerfile .
docker run --rm --platform linux/amd64 --cpus=2 --memory=4g cisv-php-bench

The benchmark output includes both full parse and iterator paths (including cisv-iterator).

UPSTREAM CORE

• cisv-core: https://github.com/Sanix-Darker/cisv-core