PHP to xls file and UTF-8 encoding

Question

$filename = "file.xls";

header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$filename\"");
header("Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel");

$content = "asd";
echo $content;

If $content contains some unicode symbols, in excel file, result is something like this : áƒáƒ¡áƒ“

How to solve this? How to set this php file UTF8 encoding ?

I am trying: header("Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel; charset=utf-8"); but not works

Answer 1

If you are generating file by simply echoing strings, you should create it as xml then doing an echo you need to add encoding to file.

$content = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>'

You need to create your file in xml as its expected.
Ex:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Workbook xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel" xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<Worksheet>
<Table>
<Row>
<Cell><Data>$content</Data></Cell>
</Row>
</Table>
</Worksheet>
</Workbook>