How to read a date with ExcelBundle [Symfony Bundle] - php

Question

I'm having an issue while I'm trying to read cell value with $cell->getCalculatedValue() of a DateTime cell.
The excel file value is 28/2/15 (in format d/m/y) but I get 42063.
Is this a problem with the format? If it is, how I can solve it?

Answer 1

MS Excel date/time values are a float, not a formatted string, or any other special datatype; and it's only the number formatting mask that differentiates them from any other float
getCalculatedValue() will handle any formulae, but won't apply any formatting, so you'll simply get the float value back
however
getFormattedValue() will calculate any formula for the cell, but also apply any number formatting mask, so a "date" will be returned as a formatted string dependent on the number format mask for that cell
EDIT
The formatted string returned is dependent on the number format mask used.... unfortunately some MS Excel date format masks are locale aware, but PHPExcel is not, so if the cell uses one of these masks then the result may not be formatted as you'd want.
You can apply manual formatting for a cell value, using a format mask of your choice:
$result = PHPExcel_Style_NumberFormat::toFormattedString(
$cell->getCalculatedValue(),
PHPExcel_Style_NumberFormat::FORMAT_DATE_DDMMYYYY
);
or
$result = PHPExcel_Style_NumberFormat::toFormattedString(
$cell->getCalculatedValue(),
'dd/mm/yy'
);
Alternatively, you can convert that MS Excel serialized timestamp to a unix timestamp using
$result = PHPExcel_Shared_Date::ExcelToPHP(
$cell->getCalculatedValue()
);
or to a PHP DateTime object
$result = PHPExcel_Shared_Date::ExcelToPHPObject(
$cell->getCalculatedValue()
);
and then use normal PHP date() or DateTime::format() masking to format it however you want
EDIT #2
To identify if a cell contains a date:
if (PHPExcel_Shared_Date::isDateTime($cell)) {
echo 'Cell ', $cell->getCoordinate(), ' contains a date value';
}