Why cell size limit in Excel Writer?

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January 7th, 2008, 05:20 PM

ternto333

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Join Date: Jan 2008

Posts: 3

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Why cell size limit in Excel Writer?

Currently, the PEAR package Excel_Spreadsheet_Writer truncates any string that is over 255 characters. The code that does this and checks for this is in Worksheet.php in the function writeString.

Code:

   if ($strlen > $this->_xls_strmax) { // LABEL must be < 255 chars
            $str       = substr($str, 0, $this->_xls_strmax);
            $length    = 0x0008 + $this->_xls_strmax;
            $strlen    = $this->_xls_strmax;
            $str_error = -3;
        }

I would like to write more than 255 characters, but before I delve into the code, I wanted to know if there a reason why they wrote this to have such a limit?

January 7th, 2008, 05:33 PM

wiesemann

Contributing User

Join Date: Apr 2007

Posts: 146

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Reputation Power: 2

The reason is Excel. The older format supported only 255 characters. But you can use $xls->setVersion(8); to disable this limit and to enable the newer format. The manual will tell you more about this.

January 7th, 2008, 06:27 PM

ternto333

Registered User

Join Date: Jan 2008

Posts: 3

Time spent in forums: 56 m 21 sec
Reputation Power: 0

Quote:

Originally Posted by ternto333

Currently, the PEAR package Excel_Spreadsheet_Writer truncates any string that is over 255 characters. The code that does this and checks for this is in Worksheet.php in the function writeString.

Code:

   if ($strlen > $this->_xls_strmax) { // LABEL must be < 255 chars
            $str       = substr($str, 0, $this->_xls_strmax);
            $length    = 0x0008 + $this->_xls_strmax;
            $strlen    = $this->_xls_strmax;
            $str_error = -3;
        }

I would like to write more than 255 characters, but before I delve into the code, I wanted to know if there a reason why they wrote this to have such a limit?

It worked like a charm. Thanks!

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