Exporting data to CSV/Excel in Laravel (mention common packages).
Jul 20, 2025 am 02:16 AMTo export CSV or Excel files, it is recommended to use the Maatwebsite/Laravel-Excel package. 1. Install this package: composer requires maatwebsite/excel; 2. Optional publishing configuration: php artisan vendor:publish; 3. Create export class: php artisan make:export; 4. Call the Excel::download method in the controller to return the download response; 5. Custom export data can be implemented by implementing collection or query methods; 6. Use WithHeadings, WithMapping and other interfaces to control the format; 7. Enable FromQuery and onQueue queue processing when large data volumes are used to optimize performance.
When you need to export data to CSV or Excel in a Laravel application, there are a few solid packages that make the process straightforward. The most commonly used one is Maatwebsite/Laravel-Excel , which supports both formats and integrates smoothly with Laravel's ecosystem.

Why use a package instead of writing your own?
Trying to handle CSV or Excel exports manually can lead to messy code and edge cases (like handling commas inside fields, encoding issues, or complex Excel formatting). Using a well-maintained package like Laravel Excel saves time and avoids common pitfalls.
Install and set up Laravel Excel
To get started, install the package via Composer:

composer requires maatwebsite/excel
Then, publish the configuration (optional but recommended):
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Maatwebsite\Excel\ExcelServiceProvider"
This gives you access to config files where you can tweak things like default export format, delimiter for CSVs, etc.

Once installed, you can create an export class using Artisan:
php artisan make:export UsersExport --model=User
This generates a class in the App/Exports
directory where you define what data to return.
Exporting data from a controller
You don't want users triggering exports directly from a model or command line — it should happen in a controller so you can return the file as a downloadable response.
Here's how to do it in a controller method:
use App\Exports\UsersExport; use Illuminate\Http\Request; use Maatwebsite\Excel\Facades\Excel; public function exportUsers(Request $request) { return Excel::download(new UsersExport(), 'users.csv'); }
Change 'users.csv'
to 'users.xlsx'
if you prefer Excel format. This will trigger a file download when the route is accessed.
Make sure to define the route properly:
Route::get('/export-users', [UserController::class, 'exportUsers'])->name('export.users');
Customizing the exported data
If you need to modify the data before exporting (eg, filter by date, add computed columns), open your export class and adjust the collection()
or query()
method.
For example, filtering users created in the last 30 days:
use App\Models\User; use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\FromCollection; class UsersExport implements FromCollection { public function collection() { return User::where('created_at', '>=', now()->subDays(30))->get(); } }
Or if you want to format specific cells or rows, you can implement additional concerns like WithMapping
, WithHeadings
, or ShouldAutoSize
.
Some useful interfaces include:
-
WithHeadings
– to define custom column headers -
WithMapping
– to transform each row before export -
ShouldAutoSize
– to automatically adjust column widths in Excel
These give you fine-grained control over the final output without reinventing the wheel.
Handling large datasets efficiently
If you're exporting thousands of records, memory usage can become an issue. Laravel Excel has built-in support for chunked queries and queue-based exports to avoid timeouts and high memory consumption.
To export large datasets in chunks, update your export class like this:
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\FromQuery; use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\Exportable; class UsersExport implements FromQuery { use Exportable; public function query() { return User::query(); // Automatically chunks the query } }
And optionally, dispatch the export to a queue:
public function exportUsers(Request $request) { return Excel::download(new UsersExport(), 'users.xlsx')->onQueue('exports'); }
This way, the export runs in the background, and the user doesn't have to wait for it to finish.
Depending on your needs, Laravel Excel can be simple or quite powerful. Whether you're just exporting a list of users or generating complex reports with styling and formulas, it's got you covered. Just remember to keep your export logic clean, test different formats, and optimize for performance when needed.
Basically that's it.
The above is the detailed content of Exporting data to CSV/Excel in Laravel (mention common packages).. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

Hot AI Tools

Undress AI Tool
Undress images for free

Undresser.AI Undress
AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos

AI Clothes Remover
Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.

Clothoff.io
AI clothes remover

Video Face Swap
Swap faces in any video effortlessly with our completely free AI face swap tool!

Hot Article

Hot Tools

Notepad++7.3.1
Easy-to-use and free code editor

SublimeText3 Chinese version
Chinese version, very easy to use

Zend Studio 13.0.1
Powerful PHP integrated development environment

Dreamweaver CS6
Visual web development tools

SublimeText3 Mac version
God-level code editing software (SublimeText3)

There are three main ways to set environment variables in PHP: 1. Global configuration through php.ini; 2. Passed through a web server (such as SetEnv of Apache or fastcgi_param of Nginx); 3. Use putenv() function in PHP scripts. Among them, php.ini is suitable for global and infrequently changing configurations, web server configuration is suitable for scenarios that need to be isolated, and putenv() is suitable for temporary variables. Persistence policies include configuration files (such as php.ini or web server configuration), .env files are loaded with dotenv library, and dynamic injection of variables in CI/CD processes. Security management sensitive information should be avoided hard-coded, and it is recommended to use.en

Laravel's configuration cache improves performance by merging all configuration files into a single cache file. Enabling configuration cache in a production environment can reduce I/O operations and file parsing on each request, thereby speeding up configuration loading; 1. It should be enabled when the application is deployed, the configuration is stable and no frequent changes are required; 2. After enabling, modify the configuration, you need to re-run phpartisanconfig:cache to take effect; 3. Avoid using dynamic logic or closures that depend on runtime conditions in the configuration file; 4. When troubleshooting problems, you should first clear the cache, check the .env variables and re-cache.

To enable PHP containers to support automatic construction, the core lies in configuring the continuous integration (CI) process. 1. Use Dockerfile to define the PHP environment, including basic image, extension installation, dependency management and permission settings; 2. Configure CI/CD tools such as GitLabCI, and define the build, test and deployment stages through the .gitlab-ci.yml file to achieve automatic construction, testing and deployment; 3. Integrate test frameworks such as PHPUnit to ensure that tests are automatically run after code changes; 4. Use automated deployment strategies such as Kubernetes to define deployment configuration through the deployment.yaml file; 5. Optimize Dockerfile and adopt multi-stage construction

User permission management is the core mechanism for realizing product monetization in PHP development. It separates users, roles and permissions through a role-based access control (RBAC) model to achieve flexible permission allocation and management. The specific steps include: 1. Design three tables of users, roles, and permissions and two intermediate tables of user_roles and role_permissions; 2. Implement permission checking methods in the code such as $user->can('edit_post'); 3. Use cache to improve performance; 4. Use permission control to realize product function layering and differentiated services, thereby supporting membership system and pricing strategies; 5. Avoid the permission granularity is too coarse or too fine, and use "investment"

Laravel's EloquentScopes is a tool that encapsulates common query logic, divided into local scope and global scope. 1. The local scope is defined with a method starting with scope and needs to be called explicitly, such as Post::published(); 2. The global scope is automatically applied to all queries, often used for soft deletion or multi-tenant systems, and the Scope interface needs to be implemented and registered in the model; 3. The scope can be equipped with parameters, such as filtering articles by year or month, and corresponding parameters are passed in when calling; 4. Pay attention to naming specifications, chain calls, temporary disabling and combination expansion when using to improve code clarity and reusability.

Createahelpers.phpfileinapp/HelperswithcustomfunctionslikeformatPrice,isActiveRoute,andisAdmin.2.Addthefiletothe"files"sectionofcomposer.jsonunderautoload.3.Runcomposerdump-autoloadtomakethefunctionsgloballyavailable.4.Usethehelperfunctions

Select logging method: In the early stage, you can use the built-in error_log() for PHP. After the project is expanded, be sure to switch to mature libraries such as Monolog, support multiple handlers and log levels, and ensure that the log contains timestamps, levels, file line numbers and error details; 2. Design storage structure: A small amount of logs can be stored in files, and if there is a large number of logs, select a database if there is a large number of analysis. Use MySQL/PostgreSQL to structured data. Elasticsearch Kibana is recommended for semi-structured/unstructured. At the same time, it is formulated for backup and regular cleaning strategies; 3. Development and analysis interface: It should have search, filtering, aggregation, and visualization functions. It can be directly integrated into Kibana, or use the PHP framework chart library to develop self-development, focusing on the simplicity and ease of interface.

Create referrals table to record recommendation relationships, including referrals, referrals, recommendation codes and usage time; 2. Define belongsToMany and hasMany relationships in the User model to manage recommendation data; 3. Generate a unique recommendation code when registering (can be implemented through model events); 4. Capture the recommendation code by querying parameters during registration, establish a recommendation relationship after verification and prevent self-recommendation; 5. Trigger the reward mechanism when recommended users complete the specified behavior (subscription order); 6. Generate shareable recommendation links, and use Laravel signature URLs to enhance security; 7. Display recommendation statistics on the dashboard, such as the total number of recommendations and converted numbers; it is necessary to ensure database constraints, sessions or cookies are persisted,
