I just came across this cool article which shows you how to use Excel to run the business logic of a PHP application. Maarten shows you how to use Excel to calculate the cost of a Car and get these results to show in PHP using the PHPExcel library. Under the covers, the Excel formula is parsed into the corresponding PHP code and excuted.

Here’s a scenario: You are working in a company which sells “dream cars”. For every model, the company has created an Excel spreadsheet which is used to calculate the car’s price based on customer preferences. These spreadsheets are updated frequently in order to reflect the car manufacturer’s pricing schemes.

Your manager asks you to create a small website which accepts some input fields (Does the customer want automatic transmission? What colour should the car be painted? Does the customer want leather seats? Does the customer want sports suspension?). Based on these questions, the car’s price should be calculated. Make sure all prices on the website are in sync with this Excel sheet!

Link to Maarten’s Article: Reuse Excel business logic with PHPExcel