What is SimpleXLSX? A Lightweight PHP Excel Reader

SimpleXLSX is a lightweight PHP library used to read Excel .xlsx files. It is a convenient alternative for working with Excel files when you need to extract data but do not require complex features offered by more heavyweight libraries like PHPExcel or PhpSpreadsheet.

For related PHP-library / encoding / data-import topics, see mb_detect_encoding in PHP — Detect Character Encoding, PHP ZipArchive::close() Permission Denied, and vqmod::bootup — PHP domdocument Extension.

The class file, simplexlsx.class.php, provides an easy way to parse Excel spreadsheets in PHP without requiring additional extensions beyond the built-in PHP functionality.

• You can download the simplexlsx.class.php file from the official GitHub repository:
• SimpleXLSX GitHub Repository

Save simplexlsx.class.php in your project directory and include it in your script:

require_once 'simplexlsx.class.php';

Use the SimpleXLSX class to load and parse an .xlsx file.

Example:

<?php

require_once 'simplexlsx.class.php';



if ($xlsx = SimpleXLSX::parse('example.xlsx')) {

    // Print rows from the first sheet

    foreach ($xlsx->rows() as $row) {

        print_r($row);

    }

} else {

    // Handle error

    echo SimpleXLSX::parseError();

}

?>

If your Excel file contains multiple sheets, you can loop through them.

<?php

require_once 'simplexlsx.class.php';



if ($xlsx = SimpleXLSX::parse('example.xlsx')) {

    foreach ($xlsx->sheetNames() as $sheetIndex => $sheetName) {

        echo "Sheet: $sheetName\n";

        

        foreach ($xlsx->rows($sheetIndex) as $row) {

            print_r($row);

        }

    }

} else {

    echo SimpleXLSX::parseError();

}

?>

To handle errors, use the parseError() method. It will provide helpful error messages if the file is invalid or unreadable.

Example:

<?php

require_once 'simplexlsx.class.php';



if (!$xlsx = SimpleXLSX::parse('invalid_file.xlsx')) {

    echo 'Error: ' . SimpleXLSX::parseError();

}

?>

simplexlsx.class.php is an excellent choice for lightweight and straightforward Excel file parsing in PHP. It is ideal for projects requiring basic data extraction without heavy dependencies. For advanced use cases, PhpSpreadsheet might be a better fit.