In case you are wondering how to group rows or columns in the freshly created EXCEL files, then this may help you
<?php
/***
* Grouping Rows optically in Excel Using a COM Object
*
* That was not easy, I have spent several hours of trial and error to get
* this thing to work!!!
*
* @author Kulikov Alexey <[email protected]>
* @since 13.03.2006
*
* @see Open Excel, Hit Alt+F11, thne Hit F2 -- this is your COM bible
***/
//starting excel
$excel = new COM("excel.application") or die("Unable to instanciate excel");
print "Loaded excel, version {$excel->Version}\n";
//bring it to front
#$excel->Visible = 1;//NOT
//dont want alerts ... run silent
$excel->DisplayAlerts = 0;
//create a new workbook
$wkb = $excel->Workbooks->Add();
//select the default sheet
$sheet=$wkb->Worksheets(1);
//make it the active sheet
$sheet->activate;
//fill it with some bogus data
for($row=1;$row<=7;$row++){
for ($col=1;$col<=5;$col++){
$sheet->activate;
$cell=$sheet->Cells($row,$col);
$cell->Activate;
$cell->value = 'pool4tool 4eva ' . $row . ' ' . $col . ' ak';
}//end of colcount for loop
}
///////////
// Select Rows 2 to 5
$r = $sheet->Range("2:5")->Rows;
// group them baby, yeah
$r->Cells->Group;
// save the new file
$strPath = 'tfile.xls';
if (file_exists($strPath)) {unlink($strPath);}
$wkb->SaveAs($strPath);
//close the book
$wkb->Close(false);
$excel->Workbooks->Close();
//free up the RAM
unset($sheet);
//closing excel
$excel->Quit();
//free the object
$excel = null;
?>