22 lines
		
	
	
		
			1.5 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			Markdown
		
	
	
	
	
	
			
		
		
	
	
			22 lines
		
	
	
		
			1.5 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			Markdown
		
	
	
	
	
	
# PhpSpreadsheet User Documentation – Reading Spreadsheet Files
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## Loading a Spreadsheet File
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The simplest way to load a workbook file is to let PhpSpreadsheet's IO Factory identify the file type and load it, calling the static load() method of the \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\IOFactory class.
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```php
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$inputFileName = './sampleData/example1.xls';
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/** Load $inputFileName to a Spreadsheet Object  **/
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$spreadsheet = \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\IOFactory::load($inputFileName);
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```
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 > See Examples/Reader/exampleReader01.php for a working example of this code.
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The load() method will attempt to identify the file type, and instantiate a loader for that file type; using it to load the file and store the data and any formatting in a `Spreadsheet` object.
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The method makes an initial guess at the loader to instantiate based on the file extension; but will test the file before actually executing the load: so if (for example) the file is actually a CSV file or contains HTML markup, but that has been given a .xls extension (quite a common practise), it will reject the Xls loader that it would normally use for a .xls file; and test the file using the other loaders until it finds the appropriate loader, and then use that to read the file.
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While easy to implement in your code, and you don't need to worry about the file type; this isn't the most efficient method to load a file; and it lacks the flexibility to configure the loader in any way before actually reading the file into a `Spreadsheet` object.
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