Natively Connect to Excel Data in PHP

Drop the CData ODBC Driver for Excel into your LAMP or WAMP stack to build Excel-connected Web applications. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to Excel data, execute queries, and output the results.

Configure a DSN

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Connecting to Local or Cloud-Stored (Box, Google Drive, Amazon S3, SharePoint) Excel Files

CData Drivers let you work with Excel files stored locally and stored in cloud storage services like Box, Amazon S3, Google Drive, or SharePoint, right where they are.

Setting connection properties for local files

Set the URI property to local folder path.

Setting connection properties for files stored in Amazon S3

To connect to Excel file(s) within Amazon S3, set the URI property to the URI of the Bucket and Folder where the intended Excel files exist. In addition, at least set these properties:

• AWSAccessKey: AWS Access Key (username)
• AWSSecretKey: AWS Secret Key

Setting connection properties for files stored in Box

To connect to Excel file(s) within Box, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Box.

Dropbox

To connect to Excel file(s) within Dropbox, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Dropbox. Either User Account or Service Account can be used to authenticate.

SharePoint Online (SOAP)

To connect to Excel file(s) within SharePoint with SOAP Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended Excel file. Set User, Password, and StorageBaseURL.

SharePoint Online REST

To connect to Excel file(s) within SharePoint with REST Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended Excel file. StorageBaseURL is optional. If not set, the driver will use the root drive. OAuth is used to authenticate.

Google Drive

To connect to Excel file(s) within Google Drive, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect and set InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH.

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to Excel by calling the or methods. To close connections, use or .

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Excel Source","user","password");

Connections opened with are closed when the script ends. Connections opened with the method are still open after the script ends. This enables other scripts to share that connection when they connect with the same credentials. By sharing connections among your scripts, you can save system resources, and queries execute faster.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC Excel Source","user","password");
...
odbc_close($conn); //persistent connection must be closed explicitly

Create Prepared Statements

Create prepared statements and parameterized queries with the function.

$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Sheet WHERE Name = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with .

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Excel Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Sheet WHERE Name = ?");
$success = odbc_execute($query, array('Bob'));
 

Execute nonparameterized queries with .

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Excel Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Name, Revenue FROM Sheet");
 

Process Results

Access a row in the result set as an array with the function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Excel data Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Name, Revenue FROM Sheet");
while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){
 echo $row["Name"] . "\n";
}

Display the result set in an HTML table with the function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Excel data Source","user","password");
$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Sheet WHERE Name = ?");
$success = odbc_execute($query, array('Bob'));
if($success)
 odbc_result_all($query);

More Example Queries

You will find complete information on the driver's supported SQL in the help documentation. The code examples above are Excel-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.