FastExcelWriter

FastExcelWriter is a part of the FastExcelPhp Project which consists of

FastExcelWriter - to create Excel spreadsheets
FastExcelReader - to reader Excel spreadsheets
FastExcelTemplator - to generate Excel spreadsheets from XLSX templates
FastExcelLaravel - special Laravel edition

Introduction

This library is designed to be lightweight, super-fast and requires minimal memory usage.

FastExcelWriter creates Excel compatible spreadsheets in XLSX format (Office 2007+), with many features supported:

Takes UTF-8 encoded input
Multiple worksheets
Supports currency/date/numeric cell formatting, formulas and active hyperlinks
Supports most styling options for cells, rows, columns - colors, borders, fonts, etc.
You can set the height of the rows and the width of the columns (including auto width calculation)
You can add formulas, notes and images in you XLSX-files
Supports workbook and sheet protection with/without passwords
Supports page settings - page margins, page size

Jump To:

Changes in version 4
Simple Example
Advanced Example
Row's settings
Column's settings
Define Named Ranges
Adding Notes
Adding Images
Workbook
Sheets
Writing
Styles
Protection of workbook and sheets
FastExcelWriter vs PhpSpreadsheet
Do you want to support FastExcelWriter?

Installation

Use composer to install FastExcelWriter into your project:

composer require avadim/fast-excel-writer

Changes In Version 4

Now the library works even faster
Added a fluent interface for applying styles.
New methods and code refactoring

Usage

You can find usage examples below or in /demo folder

Simple Example

use \avadim\FastExcelWriter\Excel;

$data = [
    ['2003-12-31', 'James', '220'],
    ['2003-8-23', 'Mike', '153.5'],
    ['2003-06-01', 'John', '34.12'],
];

$excel = Excel::create(['Sheet1']);
$sheet = $excel->sheet();

// Write heads
$sheet->writeRow(['Date', 'Name', 'Amount']);

// Write data
foreach($data as $rowData) {
    $rowOptions = [
        'height' => 20,
    ];
    $sheet->writeRow($rowData, $rowOptions);
}

$excel->save('simple.xlsx');

Also, you can download generated file to client (send to browser)

$excel->download('download.xlsx');

Advanced Example

use \avadim\FastExcelWriter\Excel;

$head = ['Date', 'Name', 'Amount'];
$data = [
    ['2003-12-31', 'James', '220'],
    ['2003-8-23', 'Mike', '153.5'],
    ['2003-06-01', 'John', '34.12'],
];
$headStyle = [
    'font' => [
        'style' => 'bold'
    ],
    'text-align' => 'center',
    'vertical-align' => 'center',
    'border' => 'thin',
    'height' => 24,
];

$excel = Excel::create(['Sheet1']);
$sheet = $excel->sheet();

// Write the head row (sets style via array)
$sheet->writeHeader($head, $headStyle);

// The same result with new fluent interface
$sheet->writeHeader($head)
    ->applyFontStyleBold()
    ->applyTextAlign('center', 'center')
    ->applyBorder(Style::BORDER_STYLE_THIN)
    ->applyRowHeight(24);

// Sets columns options - format and width (the first way)
$sheet
    ->setColFormats(['@date', '@text', '0.00'])
    ->setColWidths([12, 14, 5]);

// The seconds way to set columns options
$sheet
    // column and options
    ->setColOptions('A', ['format' => '@date', 'width' => 12])
    // column letter in lower case
    ->setColOptions('b', ['format' => '@text', 'width' => 24])
    // column can be specified by number
    ->setColOptions(3, ['format' => '0.00', 'width' => 15, 'color' => '#090'])
;

// The third way - all options in multilevel array (first level keys point to columns)
$sheet
    ->setColOptions([
        'A' => ['format' => '@date', 'width' => 12],
        'B' => ['format' => '@text', 'width' => 24],
        'C' => ['format' => '0.00', 'width' => 15, 'color' => '#090'],
    ]);

$rowNum = 1;
foreach($data as $rowData) {
    $rowOptions = [
        'height' => 20,
    ];
    if ($rowNum % 2) {
        $rowOptions['fill-color'] = '#eee';
    }
    $sheet->writeRow($rowData, $rowOptions);
}

$excel->save('simple.xlsx');

Row's settings

You can set row options (styles and height) by the second argument when you use the function writeRow(). Note that in this case these styles will only be applied to those cells in the row where data is written

// Write row data and set height
$rowOptions = [
    'fill-color' => '#fffeee',
    'border' => 'thin',
    'height' => 28,
];
$sheet->writeRow(['aaa', 'bbb', 'ccc'], $rowOptions);

Other way with the same result

$sheet->writeRow(['aaa', 'bbb', 'ccc', null, 'eee'])
    ->applyFillColor('#fffeee')
    ->applyBorder('thin')
    ->applyRowHeight(28);

You can set row's height or visibility

// Set height of row 2 to 33
$sheet->setRowHeight(2, 33);

// Set height of rows 3,5 and 7 to 33
$sheet->setRowHeight([3, 5, 7], 33);

// Set heights of several rows
$sheet->setRowHeights([1 => 20, 2 => 33, 3 => 40]);

// Hide row 8
$sheet->setRowVisible(8, false);

// Other way
$sheet->setRowHidden(8);

// Hide rows 9, 10, 11
$sheet->setRowVisible([9, 10, 11], false);

// Show row 10
$sheet->setRowVisible(10, true);

IMPORTANT: You can only use the setRowXX() functions on rows numbered at least as high as the current one. See Writing Row by Row vs Direct Therefore, the following code will throw an error "Row number must be greater then written rows"

$sheet = $excel->sheet();
// Write row 1
$sheet->writeRow(['aaa1', 'bbb1', 'ccc1']);
// Write row 2
$sheet->writeRow(['aaa2', 'bbb2', 'ccc2']);
// Try to set height of previous row 1
$sheet->setRowHeight(1, 33);

Column's settings

Column widths can be set in several ways

// Set width of column D to 24
$this->setColWidth('D', 24);
$this->setColOptions('D', ['width' => 24]);
// Set auto width
$this->setColWidth('D', 'auto');
$this->setColWidthAuto('D');
$this->setColOptions('D', ['width' => 'auto']);

// Set width of specific columns
$sheet->setColWidths(['B' => 10, 'C' => 'auto', 'E' => 30, 'F' => 40]);
// Set width of columns from 'A'
$sheet->setColWidths([10, 20, 30, 40], 24);

$colOptions = [
    'B' => ['width' => 10], 
    'C' => ['width' => 'auto'], 
    'E' => ['width' => 30], 
    'F' => ['width' => 40],
];
$sheet->setColOptions($colOptions);

You can define a minimal width of columns. Note that the minimum value has higher priority

// Set minimum width to 20 
$this->setColMinWidth('D', 20);
// The value 10 will not be set because it is less than the minimum value
$this->setColWidth('D', 10);
// But width 30 will be set
$this->setColWidth('D', 30);
// The column width will be set to the width of the content, but not less than 20
$this->setColWidthAuto('D');

Define Named Ranges

FastExcelWriter supports named ranges and does not support named formulae. A named ranges provides a name reference to a cell or a range of cells. All named ranges are added to the workbook so all names must be unique, but you can define named ranges in a sheet or in a workbook.

Also range names must start with a letter or underscore, have no spaces, and be no longer than 255 characters.

$excel = Excel::create();
$excel->setFileName($outFileName);
$sheet = $excel->sheet();

// Named a single cell
$sheet->addNamedRange('B2', 'cell_name');

// Named range in a sheet
$sheet->addNamedRange('c2:e3', 'range_name');

// Add named range in a workbook (sheet name required)
$excel->addNamedRange('Sheet1!A1:F5', 'A1_F5');

// You can define name using applyNamedRange()
$sheet->writeCell(1000)->applyNamedRange('Value');
$sheet->writeCell(0.12)->applyNamedRange('Rate');
// Add the formula using names
$sheet->writeCell('=Value*Rate');

Adding Notes

There are currently two types of comments in Excel - comments and notes (see The difference between threaded comments and notes). Notes are old style comments in Excel (text on a light yellow background). You can add notes to any cells using method addNote()

$sheet->writeCell('Text to A1');
$sheet->addNote('A1', 'This is a note for cell A1');

$sheet->writeCell('Text to B1')->addNote('This is a note for B1');
$sheet->writeTo('C4', 'Text to C4')->addNote('Note for C1');

// If you specify a range of cells, then the note will be added to the left top cell
$sheet->addNote('E4:F8', "This note\nwill added to E4");

// You can split text into multiple lines
$sheet->addNote('D7', "Line 1\nLine 2");

You can change some note options. Allowed options of a note are:

width - default value is '96pt'
height - default value is '55.5pt'
fill_color - default value is '#FFFFE1'
show - default value is false

$sheet->addNote('A1', 'This is a note for cell A1', ['width' => '200pt', 'height' => '100pt', 'fill_color' => '#ffcccc']);

// Parameters "width" and "height" can be numeric, by default these values are in points
// The "fill_color" parameter can be shortened
$noteStyle = [
    'width' => 200, // equivalent to '200pt'
    'height' => 100, // equivalent to '100pt'
    'fill_color' => 'fcc', // equivalent to '#ffcccc'
];
$sheet->writeCell('Text to B1')->addNote('This is a note for B1', $noteStyle);

// This note is visible when the Excel workbook is displayed
$sheet->addNote('C8', 'This note is always visible', ['show' => true]);

Adding Images

// Insert an image to the cell A1
$sheet->addImage('A1', 'path/to/file');

// Insert an image to the cell B2 and set with to 150 pixels (height will change proportionally)
$sheet->addImage('B2', 'path/to/file', ['width' => 150]);

// Set height to 150 pixels (with will change proportionally)
$sheet->addImage('C3', 'path/to/file', ['height' => 150]);

// Set size in pixels
$sheet->addImage('D4', 'path/to/file', ['width' => 150, 'height' => 150]);