Which is the best way to generate excel output in PHP? [closed]

Answer 1

There is some class that generates PHP Excel files (real excel files, not that .csv thing). I use (DEPRICATED) See edit 2:

https://github.com/PHPOffice/PHPExcel

BUT: I have had a problem when trying to read these generated excel files with the java excel READER, so there might be bugs in this PHP script.

1. EDIT: Nice one: http://www.phpclasses.org/package/2037-PHP-Generate-spreadsheet-files-Excel-xls-XML-format.html

2. PhpSpreadsheet is the next version of PHPExcel. It breaks compatibility to dramatically improve the code base quality (namespaces, PSR compliance, use of latest PHP language features, etc.). https://github.com/PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet

Answer 2

There is a PHP Excel extension: http://ilia.ws/archives/222-PHP-Excel-Extension.html

Answer 3

Some applications generate an HTML table or a CSV file instead of a real Excel file, and pretend it is an Excel file so that Excel opens it. With HTML tables, this works surprisingly well and it even supports some formatting. With the newest Excel versions, however, you get a message asking you whether you really want to open the file.