【Laravel】How to Style (Format) Cells in Exported Excel Files

Laravel is one of the most popular PHP frameworks, providing many useful tools for web developers. In particular, when you need to create and manage Excel files, the maatwebsite/excel package is extremely helpful.
In a previous article, “Laravel: Installing maatwebsite/excel and Exporting Excel Files,” we introduced how to easily export Excel files.
In this follow-up, we’ll explain how to apply styling (formatting and size settings) to the cells of exported Excel files. The steps are explained in detail so you can easily understand them in the context of Laravel.

What You’ll Learn in This Article

• How to style Excel cells (font size, borders, cell merging, etc.)
• How to set the width and height of Excel rows and columns
• How to write styling code in Laravel Blade templates

Prerequisites

This article assumes the following conditions are met:

• Laravel 6 is already installed
• The maatwebsite/excel package is already integrated into your project
• A users table is available as the data to be exported to Excel
• You have prepared basic Excel export functionality by following the previous article, “How to Install maatwebsite/excel in Laravel and Export Excel Files”

Setting the View (Blade File) for the Excel Export

In this example, we’ll export “name” and “email” data from the users table to Excel, applying specific styles to the Excel cells. Below are examples before and after applying styling.

View Code Before Styling

First, let’s check the Blade file content before applying any styling.
The code for the view before styling the Excel cells (/resources/views/exports/excelusers.blade.php) is as follows:

<p>users table</p>
<table>
  <thead>
  <tr>
      <th>Name</th>
      <th>Email</th>
  </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
  @foreach($users as $user)
      <tr>
          <td>{{ $user->name }}</td>
          <td>{{ $user->email }}</td>
      </tr>
  @endforeach
  </tbody>
</table>

This code simply exports the users table data to Excel without any styling.

Excel Output Image Before Styling

View Code After Styling

Next, here’s the Blade file code after applying cell styling. This includes font size, borders, cell merging, and more.
The code for the view after styling the Excel cells (/resources/views/exports/excelusers.blade.php) is as follows:

<?php
$margin_th1 = "<th width='2'></th>";	// Left margin (Column A) in Excel
$margin_td1 = "<td></td>";	// Left margin (Column A) in Excel
$style1='style="font-size:9px; border:1px solid #000000; text-align:center; vertical-align: middle;"';	// Cell style (formatting)
?>

<table>
<thead>
    <tr>
        <?php echo $margin_th1; ?>
        <th height="5"></th>
    </tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
    <tr>
        <?php echo $margin_td1; ?>
        <td colspan="2" height="24" style="font-size:18px; text-align:center;">users table</td>
    </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<table>
<thead>
    <tr>
	<?php echo $margin_th1; ?>
	<th width="11" height="30" <?php echo $style1; ?>>Name</th>
	<th width="22" <?php echo $style1; ?>>Email</th>
    </tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
    <tr>
	<?php echo $margin_td1; ?>
	<td <?php echo $style1; ?>>{{ $user->name }}</td>
	<td <?php echo $style1; ?>>{{ $user->email }}</td>
    </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

The above code specifies styles for each cell in detail, improving the visual appearance of the Excel file.

• To set cell formatting (font size, border, center alignment), use the style attribute.
• To set the cell height or width, specify width or height in the td or th tags.
• To add a margin to the top or left of the table, add empty td or th tags.
• To merge cells vertically or horizontally, use colspan or rowspan.

Excel Output Result

Below is an example image of the Excel output after styling.

The Excel file is output with cell formatting (font size, border, and center alignment) applied.

Conclusion

In this article, we introduced how to style Excel cells using Laravel.
With just a simple code modification, you can greatly improve the appearance of your Excel files.
Be sure to try out the methods introduced here in your own projects!

We will continue to post articles about Laravel and Excel manipulation, so be sure to bookmark us!

　
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