Assembling data for an .xls download file

[Claus Mygind]

I want to assemble data in a format which I can return as a downloadable .xls file.

I can create .csv files with no problem using "fputcsv", but the problem in using that construct for an .xls file is each row is terminated by comma.

I store a variable number of rows in an array like this

                    $cData[] =  $c["MRMRS"].chr(9).
                                $c["FIRST"].chr(9).
                                $c["LAST"].chr(9).
                                $c["name"].chr(9).
                                $c["addr1"].chr(9).
                                $c["addr2"].chr(9).
                                $c["city"].chr(9).
                                $c["st"].chr(9).
                                $c["zip"].chr(9).
                                $c["GIFTCOUNT"].chr(13).chr(10);
 

Using the chr(9) to insert a tab between columns. Then I read the array with the fputcsv into a temp file like this

 
fputcsv($fh, $cData);
 

where $fh is my file handle to my temporary file which I then download.

The output I get is

"Mr. ......","Mr. .....","Mr. .....

Then I force the download like this.

                header('Pragma: public');
                header('Expires: 0');
                header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
                header('Cache-Control: public');
                header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
                //header('Content-Type: plain/text');
                header("Content-Type: $ctype"); 
                header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.$outputFileName);
                header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: ascii');
                header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($fullOutputName));
 
                @readfile($fullOutputName);
 

where $fullOutputname is a reference to the csv file I created. Note that "$ctype" = "application/vnd.ms-excel"

Of course the "fputcsv" is the problem. How can I properly assemble the data other than using fputcsv? To eliminate the comma between rows.

[Dormilich]

hm, isn’t the comma CSV’s row delimiter (like in Comma Separated Values)?

though you can pass any delimiter you like with fputcsv() … (as long as you pass a valid delimiter)

[Claus Mygind]

It appears the real solution is to download and install phpExcel

Then it is easy to create a completed and formatted excel spread sheet.