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" = "applicatio n/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.