oleibman
c3d24e5bb5
Add some additional support for Intersection and Union in the Calculation Engine. This allows me to reinstate 2 tests which were formerly skipped, without breaking any existing tests. There are almost certainly edge cases which I haven't thought of yet; I will leave this PR as a draft for several weeks before moving it formward. This change gives some opportunities for users to go wrong. If you place the following formula in a cell: ``` =B1:B8 A7:D7 ``` Excel will treat the space as an intersection operator, and will return the value in B7, which is where the ranges intersect. PhpSpreadsheet will do so as well. But, if you use the following formula: ``` =B1:B8,A7:D7 ``` Excel will return `#VALUE!`. This seems like something they forgot to take care of when adding dynamic arrays. The comma should be interpreted as a union operator, and PhpSpreadsheet will now return the union of the ranges. It seems very difficult for PhpSpreadsheet to return an error when the formula seems easily evaluated. Furthermore, if you use the following formula: ``` =SUM(B1:B8,A7:D7) ``` Excel evaluates it as you would expect, summing the union of the ranges. So does PhpSpreadsheet. I guess there's no rule requiring Excel to be consistent, but ... Another way that users might go wrong is by actually entering the union or intersection symbols in a formula rather than comma or space. Excel will not allow this; PhpSpreadsheet needs to change comma or space to the appropriate symbol in order for the rest of this PR to work properly. By the time the parser gets to it, it can't tell whether the symbol was part of the cell's original formula or if PhpSpreadsheet substituted it, so it just has to permit it. I do not expect many users to fall afoul of this problem, at least not more than once. Just by way of explanation, the reason why PhpSpreadsheet has to make the substitution is because intersection has a higher priority than union, just as multiplication has a higher priority than addition. So, if you don't change the symbols beforehand, you may wind up figuring out that you need to perform an intersection too late - a lower-priority union may have already taken place.
PhpSpreadsheet
PhpSpreadsheet is a library written in pure PHP and offers a set of classes that allow you to read and write various spreadsheet file formats such as Excel and LibreOffice Calc.
Installation
See the install instructions.
Documentation
Read more about it, including install instructions, in the official documentation. Or check out the API documentation.
Please ask your support questions on StackOverflow, or have a quick chat on Gitter.
Patreon
I am now running a Patreon to support the work that I do on PhpSpreadsheet.
Supporters will receive access to articles about working with PhpSpreadsheet, and how to use some of its more advanced features.
Posts already available to Patreon supporters:
- The Dating Game
- A look at how MS Excel (and PhpSpreadsheet) handle date and time values.
- Looping the Loop
- Advice on Iterating through the rows and cells in a worksheet.
And for Patrons at levels actively using PhpSpreadsheet:
- Behind the Mask
- A look at Number Format Masks.
The Next Article (currently Work in Progress):
- Formula for Success
- How to debug formulae that don't produce the expected result.
My aim is to post at least one article each month, taking a detailed look at some feature of MS Excel and how to use that feature in PhpSpreadsheet, or on how to perform different activities in PhpSpreadsheet.
Planned posts for the future include topics like:
- Tables
- Structured References
- AutoFiltering
- Array Formulae
- Conditional Formatting
- Data Validation
- Value Binders
- Images
- Charts
After a period of six months exclusive to Patreon supporters, articles will be incorporated into the public documentation for the library.
PHPExcel vs PhpSpreadsheet ?
PhpSpreadsheet is the next version of PHPExcel. It breaks compatibility to dramatically improve the code base quality (namespaces, PSR compliance, use of latest PHP language features, etc.).
Because all efforts have shifted to PhpSpreadsheet, PHPExcel will no longer be maintained. All contributions for PHPExcel, patches and new features, should target PhpSpreadsheet master branch.
Do you need to migrate? There is an automated tool for that.
License
PhpSpreadsheet is licensed under MIT.