how to get date from excel using PHPExcel library

Question

I am trying to get Date from excel using PHPExcel. But I am not getting date, I am getting string value which is not seconds from 1970 .

Code I have tried is

$InvDate=trim($excel->getActiveSheet()->getCell('B' . $i)->getValue());

Answer 1

Try use

$cell = $excel->getActiveSheet()->getCell('B' . $i);
$InvDate= $cell->getValue();
if(PHPExcel_Shared_Date::isDateTime($cell)) {
     $InvDate = date($format, PHPExcel_Shared_Date::ExcelToPHP($InvDate)); 
}

P.S.

@DiegoDD: Should mention that $format is the desired format for the date. e.g.:

 $InvDate = date($format = "Y-m-d", PHPExcel_Shared_Date::ExcelToPHP($InvDate)); 

P.P.S. 2019 Look at answer @gabriel-lupu, with new version of PhpOffice https://stackoverflow.com/a/45070205/426533

Answer 2

For a date, getValue() should return a float, which is the Excel serialized timestamp value for that date/time... I suspect it's your trim() that's casting it to string. The actual value is the number of days since 1/1/1900 (or 1/1/1904 depending on the calendar that the spreadsheet is using).

Calling getFormattedValue() or getCalculatedValue() instead of getValue() should return the date formatted as a human-readable string according to the numberformatmask of the cell.

Alternatively, Sergey's solution tests if the cell has a date/time numberformatmask and calls the appropriate helper method to convert that Excel serialized timestamp to a unix timestamp, then uses the normal PHP date function to format it as human readable according to the value of $format. There's a similar helper method PHPExcel_Shared_Date::ExcelToPHPObject() that will convert an Excel serialized timestamp to a PHP DateTime object

Answer 3

In the new version of the library, PhpOffice, the function that handles this is excelToDateTimeObject so the new code format should be:

$cell = $excel->getActiveSheet()->getCell('B' . $i);
$InvDate= $cell->getValue();
if (PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Shared\Date::isDateTime($cell)) {
     $InvDate = PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Shared\Date::excelToDateTimeObject($InvDate); 
}