Description: ------------ Calling $worksheet->write($row, $col, 1.2) will write "1,2" as a string instead of a number when the locale for LC_NUMERIC has been set to a locale that uses "," as a decimal seperator instead of "." (e.g. da_DK). The method Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer_Worksheet::write() tries to determine whether the argument is a number by using preg_match(). However, preg_match() takes a string argument, so the float value is converted to a string. The string uses the decimal seperator specified by the current locale. If this is ",", the string does not match the regular expression used to determine whether the argument is a number. Why not just use is_numeric() instead of preg_match()?

I can't reproduce the bug. Calling $worksheet->write($row, $col, 1.2) works correctly for me. Do you have a sample script for the bug?

I can still reproduce it with PHP 5.0.5. <?php require_once 'Spreadsheet/Excel/Writer.php'; $workbook = new Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer(); $worksheet = $workbook->addWorksheet('Foo'); $row = 0; $col = 0; $worksheet->write($row++, $col, 1); $worksheet->write($row++, $col, 1.2); $worksheet->write($row++, $col, '1.3'); $worksheet->write($row++, $col, strftime('%B', 1)); setlocale(LC_ALL, 'da_DK'); $row = 0; $col = 1; $worksheet->write($row++, $col, 2); $worksheet->write($row++, $col, 2.2); $worksheet->write($row++, $col, '2.3'); $worksheet->write($row++, $col, strftime('%B', 1)); $workbook->send('foobar.xls'); $workbook->close(); ?> In the resulting Excel sheet, the cells in the range A1:B3 contain numbers except B2 that contains a string ("2,2"). This is easy to see because "2,2" is left-aligned and all the other numbers are right-aligned. The cells containing strftime() are there so that you can verify that you have the da_DK locale installed. If da_DK is installed, A4 contains "January" and B4 contains "januar".

It still works correctly for me, and seems to be using the correct locale (using php 4.3.8 and Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer 0.8). What version of the package are you using?

I am using Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer 0.8 and PHP 5.0.5. Perhaps PHP 4 and PHP 5 are different. Try the following code: <?php var_dump("a". 1.2); var_dump(preg_match("/^([+-]?)(?=\d|\.\d)\d*(\.\d*)?([Ee]([+-]?\d+))?$/", 1.1)); setlocale(LC_ALL, 'da_DK'); var_dump("b". 3.4); var_dump(preg_match("/^([+-]?)(?=\d|\.\d)\d*(\.\d*)?([Ee]([+-]?\d+))?$/", 1.1)); var_dump(strftime('%A', 300000)); ?> Here it outputs the following: string(4) "a1.2" int(1) string(4) "b3,4" int(0) string(6) "søndag" The regular expression is copied from Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer_Worksheet::write(). The 0 return in line 4 is the reason that write() doesn't work for me.

Ok, I see the problem now. But is_numeric() won't work either. Try: setlocale(LC_ALL, 'da_DK'); var_dump(is_numeric("1,2")); I'll see what I can do.

As long as it works with $ws->write(1.2), it's fine with me. I would never call write() with a localized string. If people do that, they are looking for trouble. But if you can make it work, then go ahead :-)

This is the same when using a German locale. is_numeric helps here.