Why is the cell data duplicated in each column? - phpexcel

Question

I'm new to PHPExcel and somehow I got the same data duplicated in the Excel spreadsheet using the following code:
<?php
$roster_sql = "SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE";
$roster_result = mysql_query($roster_sql) or die(mysql_error());
// Populate 2D Array
$kcount = 0;
while($sheet_array = mysql_fetch_array($roster_result))
{
$sheet[$kcount] = $sheet_array;
$kcount++;
}
$rowID = 1;
foreach($sheet as $rowArray)
{
$columnID = 'A';
foreach($rowArray as $columnValue)
{
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->setCellValue($columnID.$rowID, $columnValue);
$columnID++;
}
$rowID++;
}
?>
The generated spreadsheet has each cell value duplicated in the column. Did I populate the array incorrectly or is there something wrong when I write out the array?
Further, how do I write the header row in the same spreadsheet without hard coding the column names from the SQL?
Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Default behaviour for mysql_fetch_array() is to return an array with both enumerated and associative values for each column. i.e. the $result_type argument is MYSQL_BOTH.
If you only want either an associative or an enumerated result (but not both), then you need to specify this, e.g.
while($sheet_array = mysql_fetch_array($roster_result, MYSQL_ASSOC))
or
while($sheet_array = mysql_fetch_array($roster_result, MYSQL_NUM))
or use one of the related functions, e.g.
while($sheet_array = mysql_fetch_assoc($roster_result))
or
while($sheet_array = mysql_fetch_row($roster_result))
EDIT
If you want to write out the column names as a header, then you need to call something like mysql_list_fields() to get the list of columns for the table
Or alternatively, retrieve your data as an associative array, and then the key values will be your column names