PHPEXCEL : how to merge cells dynamically based on count - php

Question

I want to merge cells dynamically based on count using PHPEXCEl.
For example:
if $count = 2;
I want to merge two cells as given below,
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->mergeCells('A1:B1');
similarly, if $count = 4;
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->mergeCells('C1:F1');
similarly, if $count = 5;
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->mergeCells('G1:K1');
I want to get this logic in a loop.
I tried the below logic, which doesn't work
$count = ew_Execute("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ems_defects_codes WHERE DEF_CODE = '$def_code'");
$start_letter = A;
$rowno = 1;
for ($i = 0; $i < $count ; $i++) {
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->mergeCells($start_letter.$rowno.':'.$i.$rowno);
}
Any help will be much appreciated.Thanks..!!

Answer 1

You need to get column range string value for the inputs - start_letter, row_number and count. Once the column range is available, same can be used in the PHPExcel mergeCells function. Here is example code to get column range:
function getColRange($start_letter, $row_number, $count) {
$alphabets = range('A', 'Z');
$start_idx = array_search(
$start_letter,
$alphabets
);
return sprintf(
"%s%s:%s%s",
$start_letter,
$row_number,
$alphabets[$start_idx + $count],
$row_number
);
}
print getColRange('A', 1, 2) . PHP_EOL;
print getColRange('C', 1, 4) . PHP_EOL;
print getColRange('G', 1, 4) . PHP_EOL;
Output
A1:C1
C1:G1
G1:K1
Further you can use this new function with your code to do actual merge. You can choose to call this function or in a loop.
$sheet = $objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet();
$sheet->mergeCells(
getColRange(
$start_letter,
$row_number,
$count
)
);

Answer 2

The problem is that your $i inside of your loop is always going to be an integer; you need to convert that integer to the corresponding index of the alphabet, by creating an alphabetic array. This can be done with a simple range('A', 'Z').
You also need to wrap the A in $start_letter in apostrophes (as 'A'), and now that the range has been created, you can simply use the index of the alphabet for that:$start_letter = 0 (later becoming 'A' with $alphabet[$start_letter]).
Then you'll need to add the starting letter to the count for in order to get the ending cell in mergeCells(). Your starting cell now becomes $alphabet[$start_letter] . $rowno, and your ending cell now becomes ($alphabet[$start_letter] + $alphabet[$i]) . $rowno.
This can be seen in the following:
$count = ew_Execute("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ems_defects_codes WHERE DEF_CODE = '$def_code'");
$alphabet = range('A', 'Z');
$start_letter = 0;
$rowno = 1;
for ($i = 0; $i < $count; $i++) {
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->mergeCells($alphabet[$start_letter] . $rowno . ':' . ($alphabet[$start_letter] + $alphabet[$i]) . $rowno);
}