There was a time I had to read XLS (BIFF formats) in PHP. Poked around, found some libraries (slow as hell), decided to port[1] one of them (python's xlrd). Wh

There was a time I had to read XLS (BIFF formats) in PHP. Poked around, found some libraries (slow as hell), decided to port[1] one of them (python's xlrd). What followed, even though it was almost 1:1 port, was an inevitable loss of huge part of my life, I'll never get back. However, I learned a lot about what a mess that format is. Since then ANY xml format Microsoft uses is godsent. [1]: https://github.com/laacz/xls-reader https://github.com/laacz/xls-reader