Benchmarks

Spreadsheet Benchmark Results

Review disclosed reference measurements, understand what they do and do not prove, and reproduce PHP Excel benchmarks on your own environment.

Level: Intermediate
Reading time: 9 min
Package: mnb/mnb-phpexcel
Updated: August 1, 2026

PHP 8.1+ReproducibleEnvironment qualified

Available sincev2.0.5Version guide

Reference documentation run#

Reference environment

Date: 2026-07-30
PHP: 8.4.16 CLI, NTS
MNB source: Core 2.0.1 XML fix + XLSX 2.0.0 parser
Extensions: XMLReader off, native ZipArchive off; library fallbacks active
Fixture: large-orders.xlsx, 500 data rows, 22,629 bytes
Iterations: 9 per mode; median reported
Storage: Container local filesystem

Measured results

Reference reading measurements
Method	Rows	Median time	Peak memory	Notes
`rows()`	500	37.512 ms	18 MiB	Forward iteration; no final row array retained.
`toArray()`	500	37.298 ms	18 MiB	Small fixture; collected rows did not exceed allocator baseline.

Interpretation boundary: These numbers describe one disclosed environment and fixture. They are not a universal performance guarantee. Re-run the included script on your PHP version, hardware, storage, workbook, and options.

What this result means#

It confirms both reader paths completed the same 500-row fixture in the disclosed fallback environment.
It does not prove that one method is always faster; this fixture is too small for broad conclusions.
Streaming becomes more important when retained row data, shared strings, formulas, styles, or business transformations grow.
Later v2.0 maintenance releases changed sheet utilities, diagnostics, error rendering, and structured counts rather than the core worksheet parser used here.

Continue with the detailed benchmark#

RESULTLarge XLSX reading result

See the exact command, fixture, metrics, and interpretation for rows() and toArray().

METHODBenchmark methodology

Control versions, processes, cache state, fixtures, metrics, and result disclosure.

COMPAREMNB vs PhpSpreadsheet

Use the neutral comparison guide and run both libraries on the same environment.

Was this guide useful?Use GitHub issues for corrections, missing examples, or unclear behavior.

Open an issue