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Natively Connect to Excel Data in PHP


The CData ODBC driver for Excel enables you to create PHP applications with connectivity to Excel data. Leverage the native support for ODBC 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.

The ExcelFile, under the Authentication section, must be set to a valid Excel File.

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to Excel by calling the odbc_connect or odbc_pconnect methods. To close connections, use odbc_close or odbc_close_all.

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

Connections opened with odbc_connect are closed when the script ends. Connections opened with the odbc_pconnect 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 odbc_prepare function.

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

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.

$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 odbc_exec.

$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 odbc_fetch_array 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 odbc_result_all 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.

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Microsoft Excel Icon Excel ODBC Driver

The Excel ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live Excel file data, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Excel Spreadsheet data like you would a database - read, write, and update data through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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