working with excel files in php

Question

What is the best php library to use to with php to read/write and display components of excel files on web based pages?

Do you want just BIFF .xls files (up to MS Excel 2003), or Office Open XML .xlsx files (Excel 2007 onwards), or both? — Mark Baker, Feb 09 '11 at 10:37

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 09 '11 at 10:33

7

I would use PHPExcel for writing the files (in fact, I do use it)

And you could try

for reading but I have no experience with reading Excel files in PHP, only writing them.

answered Feb 09 '11 at 10:33

Dai

1

Note that PHPExcel can also read Excel files as well as write them – Mark Baker Feb 09 '11 at 10:36
It can? Well I'll be buggered, thanks for the info. – Dai Feb 09 '11 at 11:02
I've tried Phpexcelreader with simple files, it works fine. – AsTeR Feb 24 '12 at 01:55

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 09 '11 at 10:29

1

For my mind it is the best library: Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer

answered Feb 09 '11 at 10:29

Alex Pliutau

Although Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer can't read Excel files – Mark Baker Feb 09 '11 at 10:38
What??? Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer read files very well. – Alex Pliutau Feb 09 '11 at 11:33
OK! I stand corrected... I've never found any method of accessing data from an existing workbook file using Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer, but I'm not over-familiar with it. It's not something I would have expected either, given the name, so I've never searched for reading functions that closely in the code. – Mark Baker Feb 09 '11 at 14:14

2 Answers2