Explicitly set a cell’s datatype as text for number values

Question

I want to explicitly set a cell’s datatype as a text for number values.

I am fetching data from my MySQL database and exporting to excel file using PHPExcel Library.

Answer 1

$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
->getStyle('A'.$i)
->getNumberFormat()
->setFormatCode(
    PHPExcel_Style_NumberFormat::FORMAT_TEXT
);

Answer 2

I've not tested it, but possibly setting the cell as "quotePrefix" may prevent MS Excel from trying to convert the datatype when editing it with MS Excel

$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
    ->getStyle('A2:O128')
    ->setQuotePrefix(true);

Excel2007 only