Feature: Excel compatibility option added for writing CSV files

While Excel 2010 can read CSV files with a simple UTF-8 BOM, Excel2007 and earlier require UTF-16LE encoded tab-separated files.
The new setExcelCompatibility(TRUE) option for the CSV Writer will generate files with this formatting for easy import into Excel2007 and below.

Classes/PHPExcel/CachedObjectStorage/CacheBase.php

@@ -181,6 +181,7 @@ class PHPExcel_CachedObjectStorage_CacheBase {
 			$highestRow = max($row);
 			$highestColumn = substr(max($col),1);
 		}
+
 		return array( 'row'	   => $highestRow,
 					  'column' => $highestColumn
 					);

Classes/PHPExcel/Writer/CSV.php

@@ -83,6 +83,13 @@ class PHPExcel_Writer_CSV implements PHPExcel_Writer_IWriter {
 	 */
 	private $_useBOM = false;
 
+	/**
+	 * Whether to write a fully Excel compatible CSV file.
+	 *
+	 * @var boolean
+	 */
+	private $_excelCompatibility = false;
+
 	/**
 	 * Create a new PHPExcel_Writer_CSV
 	 *
@@ -113,7 +120,12 @@ class PHPExcel_Writer_CSV implements PHPExcel_Writer_IWriter {
 			throw new Exception("Could not open file $pFilename for writing.");
 		}
 
-		if ($this->_useBOM) {
+		if ($this->_excelCompatibility) {
+			// Write the UTF-16LE BOM code
+			fwrite($fileHandle, "\xFF\xFE");	//	Excel uses UTF-16LE encoding
+			$this->setEnclosure();				//	Default enclosure is "
+			$this->setDelimiter("\t");			//	Excel delimiter is a TAB
+		} elseif ($this->_useBOM) {
 			// Write the UTF-8 BOM code
 			fwrite($fileHandle, "\xEF\xBB\xBF");
 		}
@@ -220,6 +232,27 @@ class PHPExcel_Writer_CSV implements PHPExcel_Writer_IWriter {
 		return $this;
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Get whether the file should be saved with full Excel Compatibility
+	 *
+	 * @return boolean
+	 */
+	public function getExcelCompatibility() {
+		return $this->_excelCompatibility;
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Set whether the file should be saved with full Excel Compatibility
+	 *
+	 * @param	boolean	$pValue		Set the file to be written as a fully Excel compatible csv file
+	 *								Note that this overrides other settings such as useBOM, enclosure and delimiter
+	 * @return PHPExcel_Writer_CSV
+	 */
+	public function setExcelCompatibility($pValue = false) {
+		$this->_excelCompatibility = $pValue;
+		return $this;
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Get sheet index
 	 *
@@ -274,9 +307,13 @@ class PHPExcel_Writer_CSV implements PHPExcel_Writer_IWriter {
 			$line .= $this->_lineEnding;
 
 			// Write to file
-			fwrite($pFileHandle, $line);
+			if ($this->_excelCompatibility) {
+				fwrite($pFileHandle, mb_convert_encoding($line,"UTF-16LE","UTF-8"));
+			} else {
+				fwrite($pFileHandle, $line);
+			}
 		} else {
-			throw new Exception("Invalid parameters passed.");
+			throw new Exception("Invalid data row passed to CSV writer.");
 		}
 	}
 

changelog.txt

@@ -81,6 +81,9 @@ Fixed in develop branch:
 - Feature:  (Progi1984) & (blazzy) Work items 9605 - Implement support for AutoFilter in PHPExcel_Writer_Excel5
 - Feature:  (MBaker)     Modified ERF and ERFC Engineering functions to accept Excel 2010's modified acceptance of negative arguments
 - Feature:  (k1LoW)      Support SheetView `view` attribute (Excel2007)
+- Feature:  (MBaker)     Excel compatibility option added for writing CSV files
+                         While Excel 2010 can read CSV files with a simple UTF-8 BOM, Excel2007 and earlier require UTF-16LE encoded tab-separated files.
+                         The new setExcelCompatibility(TRUE) option for the CSV Writer will generate files with this formatting for easy import into Excel2007 and below.
 - General:  (alexgann)   Add Currency detection to the Advanced Value Binder
 - General:  (MBaker)     Work item 18404 - setCellValueExplicitByColumnAndRow() do not return PHPExcel_Worksheet
 - General:  (MBaker)     Work item 18324 - Reader factory doesn't read anymore XLTX and XLT files