PHPExcel How to get only 1 cell value? - php

Question

I would think that a getCell($X, $y) or getCellValue($X, $y) would be available for one to easily pick a a certain value. This can be usefully, as example crosscheck data prior to a larger process.
How do you get a specific value from say cell C3.
I do not want an array of values to sort through.

Answer 1

Section 4.5.2 of the developer documentation
Retrieving a cell by coordinate
To retrieve the value of a cell, the cell should first be retrieved from the worksheet using the getCell method. A cell’s value can be read again using the following line of code:
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->getCell('B8')->getValue();
Section 4.5.4 of the developer documentation
Retrieving a cell by column and row
To retrieve the value of a cell, the cell should first be retrieved from the worksheet using the getCellByColumnAndRow method. A cell’s value can be read again using the following line of code:
// Get cell B8
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->getCellByColumnAndRow(1, 8)->getValue();
If you need the calculated value of a cell, use the following code. This is further explained in 4.4.35
// Get cell B8
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->getCellByColumnAndRow(1, 8)->getCalculatedValue();

Answer 2

By far the simplest - and it uses normal Excel co-ordinates:
// Assuming $sheet is a PHPExcel_Worksheet
$value = $sheet->getCell( 'A1' )->getValue();
You can separate the co-ordinates out in a function if you like:
function getCell( PHPExcel_Worksheet $sheet, /* string */ $x = 'A', /* int */ $y = 1 ) {
return $sheet->getCell( $x . $y );
}
// eg:
getCell( $sheet, 'B', 2 )->getValue();

Answer 3

This is a source based answer feel free to improve or comment.
function toNumber($dest)
{
if ($dest)
return ord(strtolower($dest)) - 96;
else
return 0;
}
function myFunction($s,$x,$y){
$x = toNumber($x);
return $s->getCellByColumnAndRow($x, $y)->getFormattedValue();
}
$objReader = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createReader($inputFileType);
$objPHPExcel = $objReader->load($inputFileName);
$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0);
$sheetData = $objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet();
$cellData = myFunction($sheetData,'B','2');
var_dump($cellData);
This does not work past the letter Z, and could be improved but works for my needs.