PHP range() from A to ZZ?

Question

Is it possible to get a range with PHP from A to ZZ*?

a b c ... aa ... zx zy zz

For me this didn't work:

range('A', 'ZZ');

It's for PHPExcel, when it gives BE as highest field i'd run through all colums. In this case i only get A, B:

range ('A', 'BE')

Answer 1

You can combine two foreach loops to generate something like that.

// Single letters
foreach(range('A', 'Z') as $letter) {
    echo $letter;
}

// AA-ZZ combinations
foreach(range('A', 'Z') as $letter1) {
    foreach(range('A', 'Z') as $letter2) {
        echo $letter1 . $letter2;
    }
}

Answer 2

Please check this simple solution incrementing char.

How to list from A to Z in PHP, and then on to AA, AB, AC, etc

Use this recursive function to get the exact range from A to ZZ

function myRange($end_column = '', $first_letters = '') {
    $columns = array();
    $length = strlen($end_column);
    $letters = range('A', 'Z');

    // Iterate over 26 letters.
    foreach ($letters as $letter) {
      // Paste the $first_letters before the next.
      $column = $first_letters . $letter; 
      // Add the column to the final array.
      $columns[] = $column;
      // If it was the end column that was added, return the columns.
      if ($column == $end_column)
          return $columns;
    }

    // Add the column children.
    foreach ($columns as $column) {
      // Don't itterate if the $end_column was already set in a previous itteration.
      // Stop iterating if you've reached the maximum character length.
      if (!in_array($end_column, $columns) && strlen($column) < $length) {
          $new_columns = myRange($end_column, $column);
          // Merge the new columns which were created with the final columns array.
          $columns = array_merge($columns, $new_columns);
      }
    }

    return $columns;
}

call function like.

print_r(myRange('ZZ'));

will give you result

A B C . . . ZX ZY ZZ

Answer 3

You could ofcourse write your own function to do this as it seems that the range() function in php doesn't support this. This should be an easy job, since you can just nest the range function in another loop. Something like this:

foreach(range('a', 'z') as $outer) {
  foreach(range('a', 'z') as $inner) {
    print($outer.$inner);
  }
}

Answer 4

Just Try this- (tested working fine)

function createColumnsArray($end_column, $first_letters = '')
{
  $columns = array();
  $length = strlen($end_column);
  $letters = range('A', 'Z');

  // Iterate over 26 letters.
  foreach ($letters as $letter) {
      // Paste the $first_letters before the next.
      $column = $first_letters . $letter;

      // Add the column to the final array.
      $columns[] = $column;

      // If it was the end column that was added, return the columns.
      if ($column == $end_column)
          return $columns;
  }

  // Add the column children.
  foreach ($columns as $column) {
      // Don't itterate if the $end_column was already set in a previous itteration.
      // Stop iterating if you've reached the maximum character length.
      if (!in_array($end_column, $columns) && strlen($column) < $length) {
          $new_columns = createColumnsArray($end_column, $column);
          // Merge the new columns which were created with the final columns array.
          $columns = array_merge($columns, $new_columns);
      }
  }

  return $columns;
}
echo "<pre>";
print_r( createColumnsArray('BZ'));

copied from http://php.net/range

Answer 5

Here is a simplified solution in which you can define number of rows and columns you want to generate. This way you will allocate lesser memory.

// Get cell names for excel
function generate_excel_cell_names($row_cnt, $col_cnt){
    $excel_cells = [];

    // Note: Row and col indexes are starting from 1
    for ($excel_row=1; $excel_row <= $row_cnt; $excel_row++) { 
        $excel_col = 'A';
        for ($col_index = 1; $col_index <= $col_cnt; $col_index++)
        {
            $excel_cells[$excel_row][$col_index] = $excel_col.$excel_row;
            $excel_col++;
        }
    }
    return $excel_cells;
}