为什么XLS在从PHP导出时需要“ID＃”作为第一列标题？

Question

I wrote a utility to export a report from database to xls file. The database had some utf-8 characters which were not being converted into unreadable text when i wrote it to excel. I found a strange solution that if i post the first column first cell as specifically "ID#", it writes perfectly. Rest whatever i do with other columns, doesnt matter. BUT if i put anything else other than ID#, it prints unreadable rows.

For example when I put up ID# in first cell of first row, this is what i get

which is perfect.

But if i put anything else in the first cell, this is what happens.

Here is the code.

function generate_excel_report($filename, $header_array, $column_names, $data, $attachment_column, $correct_answer_column = FALSE, $insert_correct_answer = False) {
   header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$filename\"");
    header("Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel;charset=UTF-8");
    iconv_set_encoding("internal_encoding", "UTF-8");
    iconv_set_encoding("output_encoding", "ISO-8859-1");

    for ($i = 0; $i < count($header_array); $i++) {
        echo $header_array[$i] . "\t";
    }
    echo "
";
    $j = 0;
    foreach ($data as $row) {
        $k = 0;
        for ($i = 0; $i < count($header_array); $i++) {
            if ($i == $attachment_column) {
                if ($row['attachment_type'] != '') {
                    echo '"' . $row['attachment_url'] . '"' . "\t";
                } else {
                    echo '"' . $row[$column_names[$k]] . '"' . "\t";
                    $k++;
                }
            } else if ($i == $correct_answer_column && $insert_correct_answer) {
                echo '"' . $row['option_' . $row['correct_answer']] . '"' . "\t";
            } else {
                if ($i == 0) {
                    echo '"' . ++$j . '"' . "\t";
                } else {
                    echo '"' . $row[$column_names[$k]] . '"' . "\t";
                    $k++;
                }
            }
        }
        echo "
";
    }
}

I have absolutely no idea why it is doing so...Anyone can help here?

Thanks

Answer 1

This is because Excel thinks that Text files starting with IDxxx are in SYLK Format. See e.g. here You can with Id oder 'ID (with apostrophe) but not ID.