Milind Daraniya

Best PHP Libraries for Working with CSV and Excel

Published February 20th, 2023 9 min read

Handling CSV and Excel files is a common task in PHP web development. Whether you need to import data from CSV files, export data to Excel spreadsheets, or manipulate large datasets, using PHP libraries can simplify the process and save time. In this post, we'll explore some of the best PHP libraries for working with CSV and Excel files.

PhpSpreadsheet

PhpSpreadsheet is a powerful library that allows reading, writing, and manipulating Excel files in various formats, including XLSX, XLS, CSV, and more. It provides a simple and intuitive API, making it easy to create and modify Excel spreadsheets in PHP.

League\Csv

League\Csv is a feature-rich library for working with CSV files in PHP. It provides extensive support for reading and writing CSV data, handling delimiters, headers, and more. The library offers a convenient and user-friendly API for importing and exporting CSV files.

Box\Spout

Box\Spout is a high-performance library for reading and writing spreadsheet files in PHP. It supports various formats, including XLSX, CSV, and ODS. Box\Spout is designed to process large datasets efficiently, making it an excellent choice for performance-critical applications.

Goodby\CSV

Goodby\CSV is a lightweight and easy-to-use library for working with CSV files in PHP. It simplifies the process of importing and exporting CSV data with minimal configuration. Goodby\CSV is suitable for simple CSV operations and projects with straightforward requirements.

Spout

Spout is a fast and memory-efficient library for reading and writing spreadsheet files in PHP. It supports various formats, including XLSX, CSV, and ODS. Spout is optimized for handling large datasets without consuming excessive memory, making it ideal for high-performance applications.

SimpleXLSX

SimpleXLSX is a lightweight library for reading data from XLSX files in PHP. It provides a straightforward API for extracting data from Excel spreadsheets without the need for complex configuration. SimpleXLSX is suitable for projects that focus on XLSX file processing.

CsvReader

CsvReader is a fast and efficient library for reading and parsing CSV files in PHP. It is designed to handle large CSV datasets with a small memory footprint. CsvReader's speed and simplicity make it a reliable choice for projects with performance considerations.

Working with CSV and Excel files in PHP becomes more manageable and efficient with the help of specialized libraries. Whether you need to import, export, or manipulate data, the PHP libraries mentioned above offer various features and capabilities to suit your project requirements.

Choose the best PHP library based on your project's needs, and streamline your CSV and Excel file operations in PHP development.