Print raw html to xls file in php - php

Question

I am trying to create a xls file in php. And I am making a string in html format lets say <table><tr><td>Cell 1</td><td>Cell 2</td></tr></table> and want to print in xls file as it is. but My problem is that when I try to print in xls file its getting render. but I want raw html string without rendered in xls file.
Here is my code:-
<?php
$file="demo.xls";
$test="<table><tr><td>Cell 1</td><td>Cell 2</td></tr></table>";
header('Content-type: application/excel');
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$file");
echo $test;
?>php

Answer 1

You can also use a service called DocRaptor which does html to excel conversion. http://docraptor.com/ , Multiple language supported
Or You can use the below code to download the file in Excel but first you have to download the PHPExcel class files and include like below .
require_once "excel/Classes/PHPExcel.php";
$objTpl = new PHPExcel();
$l=0;
$row_num = 1;
$objTpl->getActiveSheet()->getDefaultStyle()->getFont()->setName('Calibri');
$objTpl->getActiveSheet()->getDefaultStyle()->getFont()->setSize(10);
$objTpl->getActiveSheet()->getStyle('A1')->getFont()->setBold(true);
$objTpl->getActiveSheet()->duplicateStyle($objTpl->getActiveSheet()->getStyle('A1'), 'B1:Z1');
$objTpl->getActiveSheet()->getStyle('A1:Z1')->getAlignment()->setHorizontal(PHPExcel_Style_Alignment::HORIZONTAL_CENTER);
// you can use loop over here remember to set $row_num = 2 if using loop and increment it inside $row_num++
$objTpl->getActiveSheet()->setCellValueByColumnAndRow($l++,$row_num, 'Cell 1');
$objTpl->getActiveSheet()->setCellValueByColumnAndRow($l++,$row_num, 'Cell 2');
$filename='some_file.xls'; //just some random filename
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="'.$filename.'"');
header('Cache-Control: max-age=0');
$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($objTpl, 'Excel5'); //downloadable file is in Excel 2003 format (.xls)
$objWriter->save('php://output'); //send it to user, of course you can save it to disk also!
exit; //done.. exiting!

Answer 2

There is a way by either writing html in file or comma separated text
With HTML
$xlsx_file = $pathinfo['dirname']."/".$pathinfo['filename'].".xlsx" ;
$fh = fopen($xlsx_file, 'w+');<br>
fwrite($fh, $table); // your table <br>
fclose($fh);<br>
with array or string of csv
$data = '"Name"t"City"t"Country"' . "n";<br>
$data .= '"Ashok"t"New Delhi"t"India"' . "n";<br>
$data .= '"Krishna"t"Bangalore"t"India"' . "n";<br>
$f = fopen('data.xls' , 'wb');<br>
fwrite($f , $data );<br>
fclose($f);<br>
this is temporary solution but if you want full set of options you go for PHP Excel as suggested by others