[phpexcel] PHPExcel - set cell type before writing a value in it

Do you know how can I set the cell type before writing a value in it? I would like to be able to set types like "General", "Text" and "Number".

Thank you.

The same way as you'd set the type (number format mask) after writing a value to it:

$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
    ->getStyle('A1')
    ->getNumberFormat()
    ->setFormatCode(
        PHPExcel_Style_NumberFormat::FORMAT_GENERAL
    );

or

$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
    ->getStyle('A1')
    ->getNumberFormat()
    ->setFormatCode(
        PHPExcel_Style_NumberFormat::FORMAT_TEXT
    );

Though "Number" isn't a valid format mask.

You can find a list of pre-defined format masks in Classes/PHPExcel/Style/NumberFormat.php or set the value to any valid Excel number format masking string.

try this

$currencyFormat = '_($* #,##0.00_);_($* (#,##0.00);_($* "-"??_);_(@_)';
$textFormat='@';//'General','0.00','@'
$excel->getActiveSheet()->getStyle('B1')->getNumberFormat()->setFormatCode($currencyFormat);
$excel->getActiveSheet()->getStyle('C1')->getNumberFormat()->setFormatCode($textFormat);`

Followed Mark's advise and did this to set the default number formatting to text in the whole workbook:

$objPHPExcel = new PHPExcel(); 
$objPHPExcel->getDefaultStyle()
    ->getNumberFormat()
    ->setFormatCode(
        PHPExcel_Style_NumberFormat::FORMAT_TEXT
    );

And it works flawlessly. Thank you, Mark Baker.

When the text is a number with leading zeros, then do: (Cuando el texto es un número que empieza por ceros, hacer)

$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->setCellValueExplicit('A1', $val,PHPExcel_Cell_DataType::TYPE_STRING);

I wanted the Number same as I get from database for example.

1) 00100.220000

2) 00123

3) 0000.0000100

So I modified the code as below

$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
    ->setCellValue('A3', '00100.220000');
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
    ->getStyle('A3')
    ->getNumberFormat()
    ->setFormatCode('00000.000000');


$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
    ->setCellValue('A4', '00123');
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
  ->getStyle('A4')
 ->getNumberFormat()
->setFormatCode('00000');


$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
    ->setCellValue('A5', '0000.0000100');
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
  ->getStyle('A5')
 ->getNumberFormat()
->setFormatCode('0000.0000000');

For Numbers with leading zeroes and comma separated:

You can put 'A' to affect the entire column'.

$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->getStyle('A1')->getNumberFormat()->setFormatCode(PHPExcel_Style_NumberFormat::FORMAT_NUMBER_COMMA_SEPARATED1);

Then you can write to the cell as you normally would.