Reading numbers as text format with PHPExcel

In case you need to convert the whole sheet numbers to text, you can use calculateWorksheetDimension() to get the sheet's dimensions (example: 'A1:B200' or 'A1:C150') and then use it in getStyle(), like so:

// Get sheet dimension
$sheet_dimension = $spreadsheet->getActiveSheet()->calculateWorksheetDimension();

// Apply text format to numbers
$spreadsheet->getActiveSheet()->getStyle($sheet_dimension)->getNumberFormat()->setFormatCode(\PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Style\NumberFormat::FORMAT_TEXT);

Note: This example uses PhpSpreadsheet since it is the next version of PHPExcel.

Formatting using a number format affects the way a number is displayed, not the way it is stored.

You'll have to store the numbers explicitly as strings, so you can't use fromArray(). Use setCellValueExplicit() or setCellValueExplicitByColumnAndRow() instead, passing a $pDataType argument of PHPExcel_Cell_DataType::TYPE_STRING.

EDIT

Note that you can also set styles for a range of cells, so there's no need to add the overhead of the for loop:

$range = 'A'.$row.':'.$latestBLColumn.$row;
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
    ->getStyle($range)
    ->getNumberFormat()
    ->setFormatCode( PHPExcel_Style_NumberFormat::FORMAT_TEXT );

EDIT #2 Using a cell binder

Create a customised cell value binder:

class PHPExcel_Cell_MyValueBinder extends PHPExcel_Cell_DefaultValueBinder
    implements PHPExcel_Cell_IValueBinder 
{ 
    public function bindValue(PHPExcel_Cell $cell, $value = null) 
    { 
        // sanitize UTF-8 strings 
        if (is_string($value)) { 
            $value = PHPExcel_Shared_String::SanitizeUTF8($value); 
        } 

        // Implement your own override logic 
        if (is_string($value) && $value[0] == '0') { 
            $cell->setValueExplicit($value, PHPExcel_Cell_DataType::TYPE_STRING); 
            return true; 
        } 

        // Not bound yet? Use default value parent... 
        return parent::bindValue($cell, $value); 
    } 
} 

To avoid any problems with the autoloader, create this in the /Classes/PHPExcel/Cell directory. Otherwise, give the class your own non-PHPExcel name, and ensure that it's loaded independently.

Then, before using your fromArray() call, tell PHPExcel to use your value binder instead of the default binder:

PHPExcel_Cell::setValueBinder( new PHPExcel_Cell_MyValueBinder() );