PHPExcel

PHPExcel is a PHP library that lets web applications read and write spreadsheet files in multiple formats, including Excel (.xls and .xlsx), CSV, OpenDocument Calc (.ods), Gnumeric, HTML, and PDF. It is written in pure PHP with no compiled extensions required for most features, though a few PHP extensions (zip, xml, and optionally the GD image library) must be enabled for full functionality.

The library was used in PHP web projects that needed to generate Excel reports, import data from uploaded spreadsheets, or convert between spreadsheet formats. A developer would include it in a project and call its classes to create workbooks, add sheets, write cell values with formatting (fonts, colors, borders, number formats), apply formulas, and then output the result as a file download or save it to disk.

Support for reading covers Excel 95 through 2007 formats, SpreadsheetML, OpenDocument, Gnumeric, HTML, SYLK, and CSV. Support for writing covers Excel .xls and .xlsx, HTML, CSV, and PDF (the PDF output requires a third-party library like tcPDF, DomPDF, or mPDF installed separately).

This repository is archived and is no longer actively maintained. The README is brief and does not include API documentation or detailed usage examples beyond describing supported file formats and requirements. PHPExcel requires PHP 5.2.0 or higher. Anyone finding this repository today should look for a more recent alternative, as both the library and the PHP version it targets are many years past their active support windows.

The license is LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public License), which allows use in proprietary projects as long as modifications to the library itself are shared.