What is the best way to create XLS file in PHP

Question

I am currently trying to figure out the best way to create a .xls file from PHP. It seems like to me that all I need to do is change the header content type to \"application

Answer 1

You could use one of the XML formats that Microsoft Office understands.

See Microsoft's OpenXML Developer site for details/specs.

There is a library on called PHPExcel that you can look at to help you with this.

Of course, this all depends on what you mean by:

"get the most out of that file format"

If you just have simple tables with no formatting, CSV files may be all you need; however, if you want to use more features of a spreadsheet, I would recommend taking a look at OpenXML.

Answer 2

Take a look at this PEAR package: Spreadsheet Excel Writer

Answer 3

You can start using this files. It will create a excel file and help you download it.

You can add rows like this in the

01-simple-download-xlsx.php

$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
            ->setCellValue('A1', 'Roll')
            ->setCellValue('B1', 'Name')
            ->setCellValue('C1', 'Total Classes')
            ->setCellValue('D1', 'Class Attended')
        ->setCellValue('E1', 'Percentage');

You can print data from a database like this using a while loop.

$i=2;   
while ($row = $database->fetch_array($result)) 
 { 

       $objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
            ->setCellValue('A'.$i, $row[0])
            ->setCellValue('B'.$i, $row[1])
            ->setCellValue('C'.$i, $row[2])
            ->setCellValue('D'.$i, $total)
        ->setCellValue('E'.$i, round(($row[2]/$total)*100));
          $i++;
 }