PHPExcel - If you need to use PHP to create and interact with Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet app, then using PHPExcel is a good way to go. PHPExcel is a library that has been written in PHP and has a complete set of classes, which will allow you to write to and read from different spreadsheet file formats, such as Excel (BIFF). XLS, Excel 2007 (OFFICEOPENXML). XLSX, CSV, LIBRE/OPENOFFICECALC. ODS, GNUMERIC, PDF, and HTML. Because PHPExcel interacts not only with MS Excel but also with other formats, it can be a little hard to get started. Supported Read File Formats include: BIFF 5-8 (. XLS) Excel 95 and above. Office Open XML (. XLSX) Excel 2007 and above. SpreadsheetML (. XML) Excel 2003. Open Document Format/OASIS (. ODS). GNUMERIC. HTML. SYLK. CSV. Supported Write File Formats include: BIFF 8 (. XLS) Excel 95 and above. Office Open XML (. XLSX Excel 2007 and above. HTML. CSV. PDF*. Overall, PHPExcel allows you to read, write and create Excel documents in PHP. The only downside is the learning curve; it can be a tad tricky to use, especially for novices. *By utilising tcPDF, DomPDF or mPDF libraries, which need to be installed separately.