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Importing basics ​

If you have followed the 5 minute quick start, you'll already have a UsersImport class.

php
<?php

namespace App\Imports;

use App\User;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Hash;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\ToModel;

class UsersImport implements ToModel
{
    public function model(array $row): User|null
    {
        return new User([
           'name'     => $row[0],
           'email'    => $row[1],
           'password' => Hash::make($row[2]),
        ]);
    }
}

Processing each row with OnEachRow ​

OnEachRow gives you direct access to the underlying PhpSpreadsheet Row object. This is useful when you need cell metadata (coordinates, styles) that ToModel and ToArray don't expose.

php
namespace App\Imports;

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\OnEachRow;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Row;

class UsersImport implements OnEachRow
{
    public function onRow(Row $row): void
    {
        $cells = $row->toArray();

        User::create([
            'name'  => $cells[0],
            'email' => $cells[1],
        ]);
    }
}

$row->getIndex() returns the 1-based row number. To get a specific cell you can call $row->getCellIterator() for direct PhpSpreadsheet access.

WARNING

OnEachRow cannot be combined with ToModel, ToArray, or ToCollection. Use one or the other.

Importing from default disk ​

Passing the UsersImport object to the Excel::import() method, will tell the package how to import the file that is passed as second parameter. The file is expected to be located in your default filesystem disk (see config/filesystems.php).

php
Excel::import(new UsersImport, 'users.xlsx');

Importing from another disk ​

You can specify another disk with the third parameter like your Amazon s3 disk. (see config/filesystems.php)

php
Excel::import(new UsersImport, 'users.xlsx', 's3');

Importing uploaded files ​

If you let your user upload the document, you can also just pass the uploaded file directly.

php
Excel::import(new UsersImport, request()->file('your_file'));

Importing full path ​

If you want to specifiy the path where your file is, without having to move it to a disk, you can directly pass that file path to the import method.

php
Excel::import(new UsersImport, storage_path('users.xlsx'));

Importing to array or collection ​

If you want to bypass the ToArray or ToCollection concerns and want to have an array of imported data in your controller (beware of performance!), you can use the ::toArray() or ::toCollection() method.

php
$array = Excel::toArray(new UsersImport, 'users.xlsx');

$collection = Excel::toCollection(new UsersImport, 'users.xlsx');

Specifying a reader type ​

If the reader type is not detectable by the file extension, you can specify a reader type by passing it as fourth parameter.

php
Excel::import(new UsersImport, 'users.xlsx', 's3', \Maatwebsite\Excel\Excel::XLSX);