Reading an Excel file in PHP

Question

I'm trying to read an Excel file (Office 2003). There is an Excel file that needs to be uploaded and its contents parsed.

Via Google, I can only find answers to these related (and insufficient topics): generating Excel files, reading Excel XML files, reading Excel CSV files, or incomplete abandoned projects. I own Office 2003 so if I need any files from there, they are available. It's installed on my box but isn't and can't be installed on my shared host.

Edit: so far all answers point to PHP-ExcelReader and/or this additional article about how to use it.

Answer 1

Zend Article

Answer 2

You have 2 choice as far as I know:

1. Spreadsheet_Excel_Reader, which knows the Office 2003 binary format
2. PHPExcel, which knows both Office 2003 as well as Excel 2007 (XML).

PHPExcel uses Spreadsheet_Excel_Reader for the Office 2003 format.

Update: I once had to read some Excel files but I used the Office 2003 XML format in order to read them and told the people that were using the application to save and upload only that type of Excel file.

Answer 3

I use PHP-ExcelReader to read xls files, and works great.

Answer 4

use http://www.dbTube.org