Php excel and mysql

by Vincy. Last modified on April 8th, 2023.

Database backup and restore is the most important part of maintaining software. Taking automatic periodical backup is a must for any project.

In case of unknown security flaws which may collapse your system. In such an unfortunate situation, it will be the holy grail to save you if you have a backup.

It is not only enough to take a backup by exporting your database. Also, we need to experiment with importing backups to ensure the restoration.

Backup files can be in any format. Many of the database clients support SQL, Excel or CSV format files to import external data.

We will create our own PHP database client only for importing Excel data into a database.

Restoring Excel backup into a database via programming will save us time. Let us study how to implement a quick restore by importing bulk data from Excel files. You may visit my earlier export data in CSV format if you want an export example.

This screenshot shows the output by displaying the list of imported rows from the database.

What is inside?

1. About this Excel import example
2. File Structure
3. Database script
4. Creating UI to upload import template
5. Parse Excel data using PHPSpreadsheet
6. Output: Excel import and data listing

About this Excel import example

This example allows users to choose the import template via HTML form input. A sample Excel template is added with this downloadable resource.

With a valid file, the HTML form submitted will call PHP to process Excel parsing.

In PHP, the PHPSpreadsheet library is used to read the Excel file data and convert it into an array.

The code will execute the database insert row by row by iterating the array data.

File Structure

See the Excel import example’s file structure shown below. The vendor folder has the PHPSpreadsheet library and its dependencies.

I have given a sample import template with these files to experiment with the import operation.

The schema.sql has the script to create the target database. You can find the SQL script in the next section.

Database script

Import the following SQL script and create a database environment. Also, configure your database details in DataSource.php to make this example work.

--
-- Database: `import_excel`
--

-- --------------------------------------------------------

--
-- Table structure for table `tbl_info`
--

CREATE TABLE `tbl_info` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `name` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  `description` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  `date` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

--
-- Indexes for table `tbl_info`
--
ALTER TABLE `tbl_info`
  ADD PRIMARY KEY (`id`);

--
-- AUTO_INCREMENT for table `tbl_info`
--
ALTER TABLE `tbl_info`
  MODIFY `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT;;

Creating UI to upload import template

This HTML form with the file upload option is used to choose the Excel source. On submitting this form, the Excel file will be sent to the PHP to parse the data source. This file upload option will only allow the Excel files to choose using the accept attribute.

This code also contains the response HTML for displaying the message returned from PHP. This message is shown based on the type of response sent from PHP after Excel import.

<h2>Import Excel File into MySQL Database using PHP</h2>

	<div class="outer-container">
		<div class="row">
			<form class="form-horizontal" action="" method="post"
				name="frmExcelImport" id="frmExcelImport"
				enctype="multipart/form-data" onsubmit="return validateFile()">
				<div Class="input-row">
					<label>Choose your file. <a href="Template/import-template.xlsx"
						download>Download excel template</a></label>
					<div>
						<input type="file" name="file" id="file" class="file"
							accept=".xls,.xlsx">
					</div>
					<div class="import">
						<button type="submit" id="submit" name="import" class="btn-submit">Import
							Excel and Save Data</button>
					</div>
				</div>
			</form>
		</div>
	</div>
	<div id="response"
		class="<?php if(!empty($type)) { echo $type . " display-block"; } ?>"><?php if(!empty($message)) { echo $message; } ?></div>
<?php
$sqlSelect = "SELECT * FROM tbl_info";
$result = $db->select($sqlSelect);
if (! empty($result)) {
    ?>

    <table class='tutorial-table'>
		<thead>
			<tr>
				<th>Name</th>
				<th>Description</th>
			</tr>
		</thead>
<?php
    foreach ($result as $row) { // ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
        ?>
        <tbody>
			<tr>
				<td><?php  echo $row['name']; ?></td>
				<td><?php  echo $row['description']; ?></td>
			</tr>
<?php
    }
    ?>
        </tbody>
	</table>
<?php
}
?>

Parse Excel data using PHPSpreadsheet

In this PHP code, I specified the array of allowed file types for the file-type validation in PHP. I validated the uploaded file type along with the array allowed type.

If a match is found, the code will execute other logic. Otherwise, it will return the error message to the user.

With successful validation, excel file parsing read and convert the data into an array. Each array index has an array of row data. After reading the non-empty row data, I ran the database insert and showed the response.

<?php
use PhppotDataSource;
use PhpOfficePhpSpreadsheetReaderXlsx;

require_once 'DataSource.php';
$db = new DataSource();
$conn = $db->getConnection();
require_once ('vendor/autoload.php');

if (isset($_POST["import"])) {

    $allowedFileType = [
        'application/vnd.ms-excel',
        'text/xls',
        'text/xlsx',
        'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet'
    ];

    if (in_array($_FILES["file"]["type"], $allowedFileType)) {

        $targetPath = 'uploads/' . $_FILES['file']['name'];
        move_uploaded_file($_FILES['file']['tmp_name'], $targetPath);

        $Reader = new PhpOfficePhpSpreadsheetReaderXlsx();

        $spreadSheet = $Reader->load($targetPath);
        $excelSheet = $spreadSheet->getActiveSheet();
        $spreadSheetAry = $excelSheet->toArray();
        $sheetCount = count($spreadSheetAry);

        for ($i = 1; $i <= $sheetCount; $i ++) {
            $name = "";
            if (isset($spreadSheetAry[$i][0])) {
                $name = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $spreadSheetAry[$i][0]);
            }
            $description = "";
            if (isset($spreadSheetAry[$i][1])) {
                $description = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $spreadSheetAry[$i][1]);
            }

            if (! empty($name) || ! empty($description)) {
                $query = "insert into tbl_info(name,description) values(?,?)";
                $paramType = "ss";
                $paramArray = array(
                    $name,
                    $description
                );
                $insertId = $db->insert($query, $paramType, $paramArray);
                // $query = "insert into tbl_info(name,description) values('" . $name . "','" . $description . "')";
                // $result = mysqli_query($conn, $query);

                if (! empty($insertId)) {
                    $type = "success";
                    $message = "Excel Data Imported into the Database";
                } else {
                    $type = "error";
                    $message = "Problem in Importing Excel Data";
                }
            }
        }
    } else {
        $type = "error";
        $message = "Invalid File Type. Upload Excel File.";
    }
}
?>

Note: Download the PHPSpreadsheet and include it in the vendor directory.

Download

↑ Back to Top

In this article, you will learn how to import Excel data into the MySQL database using the PHPExcel library. PHPExcel is a library written in pure PHP and provides a set of classes that allow you to write to and read from different spreadsheet file formats.

The web applications may contain data in various formats or they may have to collect data from various sources. It is not necessary that all the gathered data be compatible for storage on the server. Most large-scale websites use server-side code to dynamically display different data when needed. A database stores information more efficiently and can handle volumes of information that would be unmanageable in a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets have record limitations, whereas a database does not. So, we need to store this data in a database for future use. Here, we are using the PHPExcel library to import a CSV file into a PHP database. You can easily implement this by following these steps.

These are the steps to import Excel data to MySQL using PHPExcel-

Install PHPExcel with Composer

First, we need to install the PHPExcel library to read excel data. You can either download this from Github or install it using Composer. If your system does not have composer installed, then first download the latest composer version from its official website-

https://getcomposer.org/download/

You can check a successful installation using the following command on cmd—

Now, go to your project directory on the command prompt and run the following command to install the PHPExcel library.

E:wampwwwexceltomysql>composer require phpoffice/phpexcel

After this, you will notice that Composer has downloaded all libraries under the ‘vendor‘ directory of your project root. Here is the file structure of this project-

Excel File

Suppose we have the following excel file containing school program participants data-

Database Script (db.php)

Here, we have written the database connection code. Make sure to replace ‘hostname‘, ‘username‘, ‘password‘ and ‘database‘ with your database credentials and name.

<?php
	$hostname = "localhost";
	$db = "school";
	$password = "";
	$user = "root";
	$mysqli = new mysqli($hostname, $user, $password, $db);
?>

If we want to store or import Excel data into the MySQL database, we need a database table. So, we have a MySQL database ‘school‘ and in it we have to create a ‘participants‘ table with the given columns.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `participants` (
  `Id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `rollno` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `name` varchar(100) NOT NULL,
  `age` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `program` varchar(100) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`Id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=5 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

Create Upload File Template

To create a file uploader, we have created a simple HTML file upload form ‘index.php‘. If a form contains any file type input field, then we have to add an attribute ‘encrypt‘ with a value of ‘multipart/form-data‘.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
	<title>PHP import Excel data</title>
	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css">
</head>
<body>
<div class="container">
	<h1>Upload Excel File</h1>
	<form method="POST" action="uploadexcel.php" enctype="multipart/form-data">
		<div class="form-group">
			<label>Choose File</label>
			<input type="file" name="uploadFile" class="form-control" />
		</div>
		<div class="form-group">
			<button type="submit" name="submit" class="btn btn-success">Upload</button>
		</div>
	</form>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Parse Excel and Insert into Database (uploadexcel.php)

In this PHP code, we have validated the uploaded file type and then included the PHPExcel library files and database configuration file (db.php). We have validated the execution of each logical code. It returns an error message on failure. Further, PHPExcel parses the excel file, reads the data, and stores it in an array. We have looped over this array to insert data into the database and show the response to the web browser.

<?php  

if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {
     if(isset($_FILES['uploadFile']['name']) && $_FILES['uploadFile']['name'] != "") {
        $allowedExtensions = array("xls","xlsx");
        $ext = pathinfo($_FILES['uploadFile']['name'], PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
		
        if(in_array($ext, $allowedExtensions)) {
				// Uploaded file
               $file = "uploads/".$_FILES['uploadFile']['name'];
               $isUploaded = copy($_FILES['uploadFile']['tmp_name'], $file);
			   // check uploaded file
               if($isUploaded) {
					// Include PHPExcel files and database configuration file
                    include("db.php");
					require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';
                    include(__DIR__ .'/vendor/phpoffice/phpexcel/Classes/PHPExcel/IOFactory.php');
                    try {
                        // load uploaded file
                        $objPHPExcel = PHPExcel_IOFactory::load($file);
                    } catch (Exception $e) {
                         die('Error loading file "' . pathinfo($file, PATHINFO_BASENAME). '": ' . $e->getMessage());
                    }
                    
                    // Specify the excel sheet index
                    $sheet = $objPHPExcel->getSheet(0);
                    $total_rows = $sheet->getHighestRow();
					$highestColumn      = $sheet->getHighestColumn();	
					$highestColumnIndex = PHPExcel_Cell::columnIndexFromString($highestColumn);		
					
					//	loop over the rows
					for ($row = 1; $row <= $total_rows; ++ $row) {
						for ($col = 0; $col < $highestColumnIndex; ++ $col) {
							$cell = $sheet->getCellByColumnAndRow($col, $row);
							$val = $cell->getValue();
							$records[$row][$col] = $val;
						}
					}
					$html="<table border='1'>";
					$html.="<tr><th>Roll No</th>";
					$html.="<th>Name</th><th>Age</th>";
					$html.="<th>Program</th></tr>";
					foreach($records as $row){
						// HTML content to render on webpage
						$html.="<tr>";
						$rollno = isset($row[0]) ? $row[0] : '';
						$name = isset($row[1]) ? $row[1] : '';
						$age = isset($row[2]) ? $row[2] : '';
						$program = isset($row[3]) ? $row[3] : '';
						$html.="<td>".$rollno."</td>";
						$html.="<td>".$name."</td>";
						$html.="<td>".$age."</td>";
						$html.="<td>".$program."</td>";
						$html.="</tr>";
						// Insert into database
						$query = "INSERT INTO participants (rollno,name,age,program) 
								values('".$rollno."','".$name."','".$age."','".$program."')";
						$mysqli->query($query);		
					}
					$html.="</table>";
					echo $html;
					echo "<br/>Data inserted in Database";
				
                    unlink($file);
                } else {
                    echo '<span class="msg">File not uploaded!</span>';
                }
        } else {
            echo '<span class="msg">Please upload excel sheet.</span>';
        }
    } else {
        echo '<span class="msg">Please upload excel file.</span>';
    }
}
?>

On successful execution, the data will be inserted in the database as in the given screenshot-

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Lets say,
i want to import/upload excel file to mysql from PHP

My HTML is like below

<form enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post" role="form">
    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="exampleInputFile">File Upload</label>
        <input type="file" name="file" id="file" size="150">
        <p class="help-block">Only Excel/CSV File Import.</p>
    </div>
    <button type="submit" class="btn btn-default" name="Import" value="Import">Upload</button>
</form>

PHP code is like below

<?php 
if(isset($_POST["Import"]))
{
    //First we need to make a connection with the database
    $host='localhost'; // Host Name.
    $db_user= 'root'; //User Name
    $db_password= '';
    $db= 'product_record'; // Database Name.
    $conn=mysql_connect($host,$db_user,$db_password) or die (mysql_error());
    mysql_select_db($db) or die (mysql_error());
    echo $filename=$_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"];
    if($_FILES["file"]["size"] > 0)
    {
        $file = fopen($filename, "r");
        //$sql_data = "SELECT * FROM prod_list_1 ";
        while (($emapData = fgetcsv($file, 10000, ",")) !== FALSE)
        {
            //print_r($emapData);
            //exit();
            $sql = "INSERT into prod_list_1(p_bench,p_name,p_price,p_reason) values ('$emapData[0]','$emapData[1]','$emapData[2]','$emapData[3]')";
            mysql_query($sql);
        }
        fclose($file);
        echo 'CSV File has been successfully Imported';
        header('Location: index.php');
    }
    else
        echo 'Invalid File:Please Upload CSV File';
}
?>

Excel file is like below

I want to import only the 2nd row values into my table. Please help me how can i solve it or give me any resource. I was able to upload the excel file but it is not correctly formatted. i want to upload 4 column in mysql’s 4 column but it is uploading all 4 column in mysql’s 1 column. am i missing something ?