Creating Excel file (xls)

[jbog91]

Well, what I need to do is take information from a mysql database and put it in an excel file. I have the database part down but the excel part is giving me trouble. I don't think pear is an option so anything other than it would be great. I know how to write to a file but I don't know what to write to do stuff like go to a different cell or something. I've seen where people do it using tables but that doesn't work. I need to be able to do the following things.

Go to a new cell.
Go to a new row.
Make something bold.

How can I do this? The file is an excel (.xls or .csv) but it will be opened in Works Spreadsheet by the client.

[simcoweb]

Here's some code for creating the .xls file. Works great. Just edit the query info to match the table you want to draw the data from.

[code]<?php
// next we gather up the tables and find the field count
$select = "SELECT * FROM Datafeed";               
$export = mysql_query($select);
$fields = mysql_num_fields($export);
// next we fetch the data in each row
for ($i = 0; $i < $fields; $i++) {
    $header .= mysql_field_name($export, $i) . "\t";
}
// now we extract the data
while($row = mysql_fetch_row($export)) {
    $line = '';
    foreach($row as $value) {                                           
        if ((!isset($value)) OR ($value == "")) {
            $value = "\t";
        } else {
            $value = str_replace('"', '""', $value);
            $value = '"' . $value . '"' . "\t";
        }
        $line .= $value;
    }
    $data .= trim($line)."\n";
}
$data = str_replace("\r","",$data);
// just in case there is no data in the tables
if ($data == "") {
    $data = "\n(0) Records Found!\n";                       
}
// now to download the results and file
header("Content-type: application/x-msdownload");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=extraction.xls");
header("Pragma: no-cache");
header("Expires: 0");
print "$header\n$data";

echo "<center><h2>Done!</h2></center>";
?>[/code]

[fractil]

This code worked great for querying a MSSQL database and writing to a .xls file. I just made the following changes to use an odbc connection.

[code]<?php
// Connect to database
$sqlconnect=odbc_connect("<MSSQL SERVER>","<USER>","<PASSWORD>");

$query="SELECT * FROM <table>;";

// Get data records from table.
$result=odbc_exec($sqlconnect,$query);

$count = odbc_num_fields($result)+1;

for ($i = 1; $i < $count; $i++){
    $header .= odbc_field_name($result, $i)."\t";
}

$value="";
$data="";
$line="";

while($row = odbc_fetch_array($result)){
  $line = '';
  foreach($row as $value){
    if(!isset($value) || $value == ""){
      $value = "\t";
    }else{
# important to escape any quotes to preserve them in the data.
      $value = str_replace('"', '""', $value);
# needed to encapsulate data in quotes because some data might be multi line.
# the good news is that numbers remain numbers in Excel even though quoted.
      $value = '"' . $value . '"' . "\t";
    }
    $line .= $value;
  }
  $data .= trim($line)."\n";
}
# this line is needed because returns embedded in the data have "\r"
# and this looks like a "box character" in Excel
  $data = str_replace("\r", "", $data);


# Nice to let someone know that the search came up empty.
# Otherwise only the column name headers will be output to Excel.
if ($data == "") {
  $data = "\nno matching records found\n";
}

# This line will stream the file to the user rather than spray it across the screen
header("Content-type: application/octet-stream");

# replace excelfile.xls with whatever you want the filename to default to
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=excelfile.xls");
header("Pragma: no-cache");
header("Expires: 0");

echo $header."\n".$data;
?>[/code]

Hope this helps those who are forced to deal with a MSSQL connection.

Cheers!