Can I Read from XLS (Excel) documents as if it were a database?

[zensunni]

In ASP, there's a way to read from an excel document as if it was a database. It could read any Microsoft xls format. You would just name all the columns in row one of the document, and ASP would treat them as if they were DB fields.

The system will be upgraded to a database, so I'd like to only have to change the database connection code.

I know I can also use a simple, tab delimited document, but in PHP, I still have to do the background coding as if it were a text file.

[Atli]

In ASP, there's a way to read from an excel document as if it was a database. It could read any Microsoft xls format. You would just name all the columns in row one of the document, and ASP would treat them as if they were DB fields.

The system will be upgraded to a database, so I'd like to only have to change the database connection code.

I know I can also use a simple, tab delimited document, but in PHP, I still have to do the background coding as if it were a text file.

Hi.

PHP does not provide any specific functions to read Excel files.
You can probably find classes that can handle them however. Try a Google search for Spreadsheet_Excel_Reader. (See this thread for an idea how to use that)

If it is at all possible, I would recommend saving the XLS data as XML, which PHP can handle easily.