This tutorial will go over how to download Mysql data into Excel file. This is Very useful for generating Excel Reports of Php Applications, and database. 


<?php
      //database credentials
      $username = "user_name";
      $password = "password";
      $host = "host_name";
      $dbname = "database_name";

      //Connect to database      $connector = mysql_connect($host,$username,$password)
          or die("Unable to connect");
        //echo "Connections are made successfully::";


     //Select database
      $selected = mysql_select_db($dbname, $connector)
        or die("Unable to connect");

      //execute the SQL query and return records
      $result = mysql_query("SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROM tablename");

    $contents="<table border='1'><tr><th>COL1</th><th>COL2</th><th>COL3</th></tr>";
    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
    {
        $contents.="<tr><td>".$row['col1']."</td>";
        $contents.="<td>".$row['col2']."</td>";
        $contents.="<td>".$row['col3']."</td></tr>";
       
    }
   
    $contents.="</table>";

//header to make force download the file
$file="Report.xls";

header("Content-type: application/vnd.ms-excel");
//.date() functions add current date to file name
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=Report".date('Y-m-d').".xls");
echo $contents;

mysql_close($connector);
?>

Note:- When you run this script Force download of Excel file starts.