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.

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.

<?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 string verbatim, with no '=' formula
// promotion. It takes a string, so cast first. See SECURITY.md.
$sheet->write($row, 2, (string) $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');

save() stages the workbook to a temporary sibling file and renames it into place, so a failed save leaves the destination untouched. If the rename fails, local-path saves fail closed (return false); stream wrappers that omit rename() fall back to a direct write with a warning. Failed handle creation and rejected header, footer, font-size, and staging inputs emit warnings naming the cause. Suppress them with @ only where you handle false explicitly.

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

Reads are 8-9× faster than PhpSpreadsheet and 3× faster than OpenSpout, at the cost of memory that grows with the file, where OpenSpout streams in a flat 130 MB.

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

PHP's memory_get_peak_usage() reports about 2 MB for php_excel in the benchmark above because LibXL allocates on the C heap, outside PHP's memory manager and memory_limit. PHP's memory counters do not include these native allocations, even with real_usage set to true. This allows php_excel to write 100,000 rows without raising PHP's 128 MB limit, but the same run still peaked at 908 MB of process virtual memory (VmPeak). save() without a path, to a stream-wrapper URL, or while open_basedir is set copies the entire workbook into a PHP string, so that copy also counts against memory_limit.

php_excel can still run out of memory or hit an operating-system or container memory limit. Size your workers and concurrency using process-level memory measurements (such as resident set size), not PHP's memory counters alone. PHP arrays, strings, and buffered stream input also consume PHP-managed memory and remain subject to memory_limit; see stream-loading limits.

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.

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

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.

The launch post covers background, design rationale, and benchmark methodology: 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/.

PHP License 3.01. See LICENSE.

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

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