Over on SitePoint this morning, there's a new article from Harry Fuecks talking about something that could be immensely useful for anyone needing to work with lots of numbers (or just likes to use excel) - Generating Spreadsheets with PHP and PEAR::Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer.

Working in conjunction with the PEAR library Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer, he shows you how to create a sample spreadsheet, complete with separate worksheets, and save the file so Excel can read it. The internals of the library are pretty simple, with aptly named functions for just about everything - making a new document, formatting the text inside it, and even writing from the file. (Right now, it looks like you can only work with a new file as I don't see a read function anywhere).

This kind of article can really help everyone out there needing to work with Excel and PHP. It's a very wonderful tool for everyone, not just businesses...