Increment letters like number by certain value in php

Question

In php if I writ

$c=\'A\';
$c++; it increments to \'B\' but if I want to increment it with 2 ,3 or more , eg: $c+2 or $c+3 ,

Answer 1

If you want to increment the character by 2, adding won't work.

Try this instead:

echo chr(ord($c) + 2)

Explanation:

1. Calculate the ascii value of $c using ord($c)
2. Add the ascii value by 2.
3. Convert this achii value to string using chr() function.

Refer to ord() and chr() functions.

Note: As Mark Baker specifies, this will only work to Z and not beyond.

Answer 2

Incrementing letters will only work with the ++ incrementor operator, not with + addition.

If you want to continue using an incrementor, you can use a loop:

$column = 'AH';
$step = 7; // number of columns to step by
for($ = 0; $i < $step; $i++) {
    $column++;
}

However, PHP's character incrementor won't work backwards, so you couldn't use a negative step value

---

If you want to use addition rather than a loop, then you need to convert that column to a numeric value, do the addition, then convert back

$column = 'AH';
$step = 7; // number of columns to step by
$columnNumber = PHPExcel_Cell::columnIndexFromString($column) + $step;
$column = PHPExcel_Cell::stringFromColumnIndex($columnNumber - 1);

Which has the added benefit of allowing you to use negative step values