How can i read .xls files (Excel) with PHP?

Question

I need to convert an .xls file to text, i dont need it formatted in any way. The file is filled with productids like PN-5098P, which i will preg_match_all to get.

What is the simplest solution? I tried simply opening the file in a regular texteditor, the ids are not showing, so i guess i need some kind of binary converter?

Answer 1

XLS is a complex proprietary format, and it might be difficult to work with. If you end up having trouble with libraries like Clint suggested , consider only accepting files in a more simpler format, like CSV, which is super-duper easy to deal with. If that solution is acceptable in this situation, it'll end up making your life much easier.

Answer 2

Newer versions of MS Office can output your spreadsheet directly in XML format. Here's an example of using such an XML-format spreadsheet directly from PHP:

• http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-phpexcel/

Otherwise, I've heard good things about PHPExcel:

• http://phpexcel.codeplex.com/

Here's one other link that might at least give you some additional ideas:

• http://www.the-art-of-web.com/php/dataexport/

Answer 3

I convert my Excel sheets to MySQL using xls2mysql.com , but it isn't perfect. It doesn't recognize characters like -, /, é, ü, ô etc.. I've been working around this by converting those characters to a number in between hash tags (#4# for -) and unconverting them afterwards, but it is a bit of a hassle.