avadim/fast-excel-reader

Lightweight and very fast XLSX Excel Spreadsheet and CSV Reader in PHP

v4.0.0 2026-07-22 20:36 UTC

Requires

• php: >=7.4
• ext-ctype: *
• ext-mbstring: *
• ext-xmlreader: *
• ext-zip: *
• avadim/fast-excel-helper: ^1.3

Requires (Dev)

• phpunit/phpunit: ^9.0

MIT

• php
• excel
• spreadsheet
• xls
• xlsx
• csv
• library
• parser
• import
• reader
• PHPExcel
• MS Office
• office 2007

Published on Packagist.org on 2026-07-22 20:38 UTC

README

FastExcelReader

🇬🇧 English · 🇷🇺 Русский

FastExcelReader is a part of the FastExcelPhp Project which consists of

• FastExcelWriter - to create Excel spreadsheets
• FastExcelReader - to reader Excel spreadsheets and CSV-files
• FastExcelTemplator - to generate Excel spreadsheets from XLSX templates
• FastExcelLaravel - special Laravel edition

Introduction

This library is designed to be lightweight, super-fast and requires minimal memory usage.

FastExcelReader can read Excel compatible spreadsheets in XLSX format (Office 2007+), legacy XLS format (Office 97-2003) and CSV-files. It only reads data, but it does it very quickly and with minimal memory usage.

Features

XLSX format support

• Supports XLSX format (Office 2007+) with multiple worksheets
• Supports autodetect currency/numeric/date types
• Supports auto formatter and custom formatter of datetime values
• The library can define and extract images from XLSX files
• The library can read styling options of cells - formatting patterns, colors, borders, fonts, etc.

XLS format support

• Supports legacy XLS format (Office 97-2003, BIFF8) with the same API as XLSX
• Values, dates, cell styles, formula text and images are all returned in the same shape
• The format is chosen by the file signature, not by the extension
• Streaming as well: a sheet is read in one forward pass with constant memory

CSV format support

• Delimiter Detection: Automatic detection or manual specification of column delimiters.
• Wide Encoding Support: Any encoding supported by your PHP environment
• Supports fields with or without quotes, and escaped quotes (doubled quotes).
• Multi-line Fields Handles line breaks within quoted fields.
• Two modes - strict (follows RFC 4180) and tolerant (with non-standard CSV files)

Installation

Use composer to install FastExcelReader into your project:

composer require avadim/fast-excel-reader

Quick start

use \avadim\FastExcelReader\Excel;

// XLSX and legacy XLS are both opened this way; the reader is chosen by the file signature
$excel = Excel::open(__DIR__ . '/files/demo.xlsx');

// Read all rows into a two-dimensional array (ROW x COL)
$rows = $excel->readRows();

// Or read row by row (memory efficient)
$sheet = $excel->sheet();
foreach ($sheet->nextRow() as $rowNum => $rowData) {
    // handle $rowData
}

See more in the Getting Started guide.

Documentation

Guides

• Getting Started — read cells, rows and columns
• Reading Data — row by row, array keys, empty cells & rows
• Advanced Reading — read areas, defined names, callbacks
• Cell Value Types & Date Formatter
• Cell Styles — read complete style info of cells
• Images — extract images from XLSX
• Sheet Metadata — data validation, column widths, row heights, freeze pane, tab color, merged cells, dimensions
• CSV Parsing — reading CSV files
• XLS (Excel 97-2003) — reading legacy XLS workbooks

API Reference

• API Reference
  • Class Excel
  • Class Sheet
  • Class Csv\CsvReader
  • Class Csv\CsvOptions

Examples

You can find more examples in the /demo folder.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the list of changes.

Do you want to support FastExcelReader?

if you find this package useful you can give me a star on GitHub.

Or you can donate me :)

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