PHPexcel - getOldCalculatedValue and rangeToArray - phpexcel

Question

Searched for quite a while now, but I'm stuck at the following problem.
I am using PHPexcel 1.8.0
The spreadsheet is read using the following code:
$rowData = $sheet->rangeToArray('A' . $row . ':' . $highestColumn . $row, NULL, TRUE, TRUE);
So far ok and it works well.
But some spreadsheets contain external referenced data.
And for that I want to use "getOldCalculatedValue".
How do I combine "getOldCalculatedValue" with "rangeToArray" ?
Or is "rangeToArray" inappropriate for this ?
Thanks for any help or hints !

Answer 1

Simple answer, you can't combine the two
rangeToArray() is a simple method for a simple purpose, it doesn't try to do anything clever, simply to return the data from the worksheet as efficiently and quickly as possible
getOldCalculatedValue() is used for a very specific circumstance, and isn't guaranteed to be correct even then, because it retrieves the last value calculated for the cell in MS EXcel itself, which ,ay not be correct if the external workbook wasn't available to MS Excel in that circumstance, or MS Excel formula evaluation was disable.
When calculating cells values from a formula, the PHPExcel calculation engine should use the getOldCalculatedValue() as a fallback if it finds an external reference, and rangeToArray() will try to use this method, but it isn't perfect, especially when that reference in nested deep inside other formulae referenced in other cells.
If you know that a formula in a cell contains an external reference, you should use getOldCalculatedValue() directly for that cell

Answer 2

I came up with the following solution.
Maybe not perfect, but it currently does the job. Thanks for any improvements!
With PHPExcel included and the excel file uploaded and ready, I continue with:
$sheet = $objPHPExcel->getSheet(0);
$highestRow = $sheet->getHighestRow();
Create a new array to store the cell values of a row
$arr_row = array();
Loop through the rows
for ($rownumber = 2; $rownumber <= $highestRow; $rownumber++){
$row = $sheet->getRowIterator($rownumber)->current();
$cellIterator = $row->getCellIterator();
$cellIterator->setIterateOnlyExistingCells(false);
Then loop through the cells of the current row
foreach ($cellIterator as $cell) {
Find cells with a formula
$cellcheck = substr($cell->getValue(),0,1);
if($cellcheck == '='){
$cell_content = $cell->getOldCalculatedValue();
}
else{
$cell_content = $cell->getValue();
}
Add the cell values to the array
array_push($arr_row,$cell_content);
Close cell loop
}
At this point I use the $arr_row to do further calculations and string formatting, before finally inserting it into a mysql table.
Close row loop
}

Answer 3

I made some changes in the function rangeToArray() inside Worksheet.php.
Worked fine!
public function rangeToArray($pRange = 'A1', $nullValue = null, $calculateFormulas = true, $formatData = true, $returnCellRef = false) {
// Returnvalue
$returnValue = array();
// Identify the range that we need to extract from the worksheet
list($rangeStart, $rangeEnd) = PHPExcel_Cell::rangeBoundaries($pRange);
$minCol = PHPExcel_Cell::stringFromColumnIndex($rangeStart[0] -1);
$minRow = $rangeStart[1];
$maxCol = PHPExcel_Cell::stringFromColumnIndex($rangeEnd[0] -1);
$maxRow = $rangeEnd[1];
$maxCol++;
// Loop through rows
$r = -1;
for ($row = $minRow; $row <= $maxRow; ++$row) {
$rRef = ($returnCellRef) ? $row : ++$r;
$c = -1;
// Loop through columns in the current row
for ($col = $minCol; $col != $maxCol; ++$col) {
$cRef = ($returnCellRef) ? $col : ++$c;
// Using getCell() will create a new cell if it doesn't already exist. We don't want that to happen
// so we test and retrieve directly against _cellCollection
if ($this->_cellCollection->isDataSet($col.$row)) {
// Cell exists
$cell = $this->_cellCollection->getCacheData($col.$row);
if ($cell->getValue() !== null) {
if ($cell->getValue() instanceof PHPExcel_RichText) {
$returnValue[$rRef][$cRef] = $cell->getValue()->getPlainText();
} else {
if ($calculateFormulas)
{ ##################################### CHANGED LINES
if(!preg_match('/^[=].*/', $cell->getValue()))
{
$returnValue[$rRef][$cRef] = $cell->getCalculatedValue(); # THE ORIGINAL CODE ONLY HAD THIS LINE
}
else
{
$returnValue[$rRef][$cRef] = $cell->getOldCalculatedValue();
}
} ##################################### CHANGED LINES
else
{
$returnValue[$rRef][$cRef] = $cell->getValue();
}
}
if ($formatData) {
$style = $this->_parent->getCellXfByIndex($cell->getXfIndex());
$returnValue[$rRef][$cRef] = PHPExcel_Style_NumberFormat::toFormattedString(
$returnValue[$rRef][$cRef],
($style && $style->getNumberFormat()) ?
$style->getNumberFormat()->getFormatCode() :
PHPExcel_Style_NumberFormat::FORMAT_GENERAL
);
}
} else {
// Cell holds a NULL
$returnValue[$rRef][$cRef] = $nullValue;
}
} else {
// Cell doesn't exist
$returnValue[$rRef][$cRef] = $nullValue;
}
}
}
// Return
return $returnValue;
}