http://php.net/fgetcsv There's a builtin PHP function

does anyone know how to get the max lenght of any line in the file? the fgetcsv() requires a lenght argument that should ne greater that the longest line in the file.

Unless you're using PHP4 you don't need it, if the PHP document shows an argument in [] then it is optional

[quote-php 5.04 manual]fgetcsv() parses the line it reads for fields in CSV format and returns an array containing the fields read.
. . . . .
length
Must be greater than the longest line (in characters) to be found in the CSV file (allowing for trailing line-end characters). It became optional in PHP 5. Omitting this parameter (or setting it to 0 in PHP 5.0.4 and later) the maximum line length is not limited, which is slightly slower.
. . . . .[/quote] no longer really necessary, if your host is running php5

its not a very well formed file, only 3 lines, a list of brandnames, semi-colon separated no quotes