Boost PHP Excel Performance with the High‑Speed xlswriter Extension

Overview

xlswriter is a high‑performance PHP C extension that enables reading and writing Excel 2007+ XLSX files. It runs on Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, macOS, and Windows.

Why Use xlswriter

Compared with PHPExcel, xlswriter consumes far less memory. PHPExcel often fails on large datasets unless memory_limit is increased, which can significantly slow down processing.

Features

Write

100% compatible Excel XLSX files

Full Excel formatting support

Cell merging

Custom worksheet names

Filters

Charts

Data validation and drop‑down lists

Worksheet PNG/JPEG images

Memory‑optimized mode for large files

Cross‑platform (Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, macOS, Windows)

32‑bit and 64‑bit builds

FreeBSD license

Only dependency is zlib

Read

Complete data read

Cursor‑based reading

Read by data type

Benchmark

Test environment

Macbook Pro 13 inch, Intel Core i5, 16GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 Memory, 128GB SSD Storage

Export 1,000,000 rows (27 columns, all strings, length 19)

Default mode: 29 s, 2083 MB memory

Memory‑optimized mode: 52 s, < 1 MB memory

Import 1,000,000 rows (1 column, INT)

Full mode: 3 s, 558 MB memory

Cursor mode: 2.8 s, < 1 MB memory

Installation

Recommended installation via PECL: $ pecl install xlswriter If you encounter the error “No releases available for package \"pecl.php.net/xlswriter\"”, run the command with root privileges: sudo pecl install xlswriter After installation, add the extension to php.ini:

extension = xlswriter.so

IDE Helper

composer require viest/php-ext-xlswriter-ide-helper:dev-master

Usage Examples

Exporting a file

Note: If a file with the same name exists in the target directory, it will be overwritten.

<?php
/**
 * @desc Export file
 */
declare(strict_types=1);
$config = [
    'path' => '/home/www/build' // xlsx save path
];
$excel = new \Vtiful\Kernel\Excel($config);
$filePath = $excel->fileName('tutorial01.xlsx', 'sheet1')
    ->header(['Item', 'Cost'])
    ->data([
        ['Rent', 1000],
        ['Gas',  100],
        ['Food', 300],
        ['Gym',   50],
    ])->output();
var_dump($filePath);

Output:

string(31) "/home/www/build/tutorial01.xlsx"

Reading a file

<?php
/**
 * @desc Read file
 */
declare(strict_types=1);
$config = [
    'path' => '/home/www/build' // xlsx read path
];
$excel = new \Vtiful\Kernel\Excel($config);
$data = $excel->openFile('tutorial01.xlsx')
    ->openSheet()
    ->getSheetData();
var_dump($data);

Resulting array (truncated for brevity):

array(5) {
  [0]=> array(2) { [0]=> string(4) "Item" [1]=> string(4) "Cost" }
  [1]=> array(2) { [0]=> string(4) "Rent" [1]=> int(1000) }
  ...
}

Creating a chart (column chart)

<?php
/**
 * @desc chart.php example
 */
declare(strict_types=1);
$config = [
    'path' => '/home/www/build'
];
$fileObject = (new \Vtiful\Kernel\Excel($config))->fileName('chart.xlsx');
$fileHandle = $fileObject->getHandle();
$chart = new \Vtiful\Kernel\Chart($fileHandle, \Vtiful\Kernel\Chart::CHART_COLUMN);
$chartResource = $chart->series('Sheet1!$A$1:$A$5')
    ->series('Sheet1!$B$1:$B$5')
    ->series('Sheet1!$C$1:$C$5')
    ->toResource();
$filePath = $fileObject->data([
    [1, 2, 3],
    [2, 4, 6],
    [3, 6, 9],
    [4, 8,12],
    [5,10,15],
])->insertChart(0, 3, $chartResource)->output();