PHP not exporting MySQL database in right format - php

Question

so I am having trouble exporting the data from MySQL into excel
$output = '';
if(isset($_POST["export_excel"]))
{
$sql = "SELECT * FROM Logs ORDER BY item";
$result = mysqli_query($connect, $sql);
if(mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0)
{
$output .= '
<table class="table bordered="1">
<tr>
<th>Sort</th>
<th>Unit Size</th>
<th>Quantity</th>
<th>Price per Unit</th>
<th>Time</th>
</tr>
';
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
{
$output .= '
<tr>
<td>'.$row["Sort"].'</td>
<td>'.$row["Unit Size"].'</td>
<td>'.$row["Quantity"].'</td>
<td>'.$row["Price per Unit"].'</td>
<td>'.$row["Time"].'</td>
</tr>
';
}
$output .= '</table>';
header("Content-Type: application/xls");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=download.xls");
echo $output;
}
}
so when I hit the export button on my index.php page it outputs the data in this format: Google Sheets Link to the excel file
<table class="table bordered="1">
<tr>
<th>Sort</th>
<th>Unit Size</th>
<th>Quantity</th>
<th>Price per Unit</th>
<th>Time</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>45</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>2016-08-11 16:53:12</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>6</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>2016-08-11 16:53:12</td>
</tr>
</table>
so it outputs the right data but just the formating is off, here is what it looks like on the index.php page:
What the excel file should look like
do if anyone can tell me what I am doing wrong that be wonderful!
Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Perhaps a little bit of a cheat outputting as csv rather than proper xls but it should more or less work.
<?php
if( isset( $_POST["export_excel"] ) ) {
ob_clean();
$sql = 'select * from logs order by item';
$result = mysqli_query( $connect, $sql );
if( mysqli_num_rows( $result ) > 0){
$delimiter=',';
$enclosure='"';
/* rather than create an actual file, use an output buffer and write to that */
$output=fopen('php://output','w+');
/* add column headers */
$headers=array( 'Unit Size', 'Quantity', 'Price_per_Unit', 'Time' );
/* write the headers to the output stream */
fputcsv( $output,$headers, $delimiter, $enclosure );
/* loop through recordset and add that to the stream */
while( $row = mysqli_fetch_array( $result ) ) {
fputcsv( $output, $row, $delimiter, $enclosure );
}
fclose( $output );
/* set the headers accordingly */
header('Content-Type: application/csv');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=download.csv');
/* send the new content */
ob_flush();
}
}
?>

Answer 2

If i understand you correctly you want to export data into excel. In that case just changing the headers won't work because excel is not about table tags, What you need is a library for writing the contents into an excel format file and then make user download the same. Have a look at phpExcel.
You can also see in the example here on how to properly insert data in excel using the same.