phpphpspreadsheet

How to retrieve date from table cell using PhpSpreadsheet?


I have xlsx tables and I use PhpSpreadsheet to parse them. Some cells are formatted as date. The problem is that PhpSpreadsheet returns the values from date-formatted cells in an unspecified format:

// What it looks in excel: 2017.04.08 0:00
$value = $worksheet->getCell('A1')->getValue();  // 42833 - doesn't look like a UNIX time

How to get the date from a cell in form of a UNIX time or a DateTimeInterface instance?


Solution

  • The value is amount of days passed since 1900. You can use the PhpSpreadsheet built-in functions to convert it to a unix timestamp:

    $value = $worksheet->getCell('A1')->getValue();
    $date = \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Shared\Date::excelToTimestamp($value);
    

    Or to a PHP DateTime object:

    $value = $worksheet->getCell('A1')->getValue();
    $date = \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Shared\Date::excelToDateTimeObject($value);