README

Native C extension for reading and writing Excel files in PHP, powered by LibXL. 7-10× faster than PhpSpreadsheet with substantially lower memory pressure. Full XLS and XLSX support: rich text, conditional formatting, formulas, autofilters, form controls, embedded charts, and structured tables. PHP 8.1+ minimum. 2.0 ground-up modernization shipped April 2026.

🚀 Install

Via PIE (PHP Foundation's PECL successor):

pie install iliaal/php-excel \
  --with-libxl-incdir=/path/to/libxl/include_c \
  --with-libxl-libdir=/path/to/libxl/lib64

Or build from source:

phpize
./configure --with-excel \
  --with-libxl-incdir=/path/to/libxl/include_c \
  --with-libxl-libdir=/path/to/libxl/lib64
make
sudo make install

Then add extension=excel.so to your php.ini.

LibXL is a commercial library; download it from libxl.com and point the configure flags at its include_c and lib64 directories.

🛠️ Getting started

<?php
$book = new ExcelBook(null, null, true); // xlsx mode
$book->setLocale('UTF-8');

$sheet = $book->addSheet('Sheet1');

$data = [
    [1, 1500, 'John', 'Doe'],
    [2,  750, 'Jane', 'Doe'],
];

$row = 1;
foreach ($data as $item) {
    $sheet->writeRow($row++, $item);
}

// formula
$sheet->write($row, 1, '=SUM(B1:B3)');

// untrusted input: AS_TEXT stores the value verbatim (no '=' -> formula
// promotion), preventing spreadsheet formula injection. See SECURITY.md.
$sheet->write($row, 2, $userSuppliedValue, null, ExcelFormat::AS_TEXT);

// date with format
$dateFormat = new ExcelFormat($book);
$dateFormat->numberFormat(ExcelFormat::NUMFORMAT_DATE);
$sheet2 = $book->addSheet('Sheet2');
$sheet2->write(1, 0, (new DateTime('2024-08-02'))->getTimestamp(), $dateFormat, ExcelFormat::AS_DATE);

$book->save('output.xlsx');

📊 Performance

Write 100,000 rows × 20 columns vs PhpSpreadsheet 5.5.0 on PHP 8.4.19 NTS, Apple M3:

Read performance is similar: 8-9× faster than PhpSpreadsheet, 3× faster than OpenSpout (with proportional memory tradeoff vs OpenSpout's flat 130 MB streaming model).

For read-heavy import paths, prefer readRow(), readCol(), or readRange() over per-cell read() loops. Pass false for the $read_formula argument when cached values are enough; this avoids the per-cell formula-text probe. For sparse sheets, readSparseRow() and readSparseCol() return only occupied cells keyed by their original column or row indexes.

Why PhpSpreadsheet OOMs and php_excel doesn't

PHP's memory_get_peak_usage() reports about 2 MB for php_excel because LibXL allocates on the C heap, invisible to PHP's memory_limit. PhpSpreadsheet allocates in PHP's memory: it OOMs on 10,000 rows in a default 128 MB PHP-FPM pool. php_excel writes 100,000 rows in the same pool without raising the limit.

That's the practical difference. Bench numbers tell you it's faster; this tells you it's the difference between "report generates" and "report 500s in production."

📦 Classes

2.0 added six new classes (ExcelRichString, ExcelFormControl, ExcelConditionalFormat, ExcelConditionalFormatting, ExcelCoreProperties, ExcelTable) plus full arginfo coverage: 399 typed parameters and 277 typed return values across the surface.

php.ini settings

Store LibXL credentials in php.ini instead of source code. The extension reads them automatically when you pass null to the constructor.

[excel]
excel.license_name="YOUR_LICENSE_NAME"
excel.license_key="YOUR_LICENSE_KEY"
excel.skip_empty=0

🔗 Native PHP extensions

Companion native PHP extensions:

• mdparser: native CommonMark + GFM markdown parser via md4c. 15-30× faster than pure-PHP libraries.
• php_clickhouse: native ClickHouse client speaking the wire protocol directly. Picks up where SeasClick left off.
• pdo_duckdb: PDO driver for DuckDB, analytical SQL in your PHP stack.
• fastjson: drop-in faster ext/json, backed by yyjson. 6× encode, 2.7× decode, 5× validate.
• phpser: decoder-optimized binary serializer for cache workloads. Faster than igbinary on packed numerics and DTO batches.
• fast_uuid: high-throughput UUID generation (v1/v4/v7), batched CSPRNG and SIMD hex formatter, ramsey-compatible API.
• fastchart: native chart-rendering extension. 38 chart types behind one fluent OO API, SVG-canonical with PNG/JPG/WebP and optional PDF output.
• statgrab: system statistics (CPU, memory, disk, network) via libstatgrab, no parsing /proc by hand.
• phonetic: native phonetic name matching (Double Metaphone, Beider-Morse, Daitch-Mokotoff, NYSIIS, Match Rating), the encoders PHP core lacks.

📚 Read more

Full background, design rationale, and benchmark methodology in the launch post: php_excel 2.0: The C Extension for Excel That PHP Should Have Had All Along.

API reference lives in docs/; usage examples live in tests/.

License

PHP License 3.01. See LICENSE.

LibXL itself is commercial. See libxl.com for licensing.

Follow @iliaa on X • Blog • If this sped up your stack, ⭐ star it!