Parsing 'General' fields of mixed types

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Excel Spreadsheet of mixed fields (text, float, int) but all specified as 
'General' in Excel
2. The fields look fine in Excel, but when parsed by php-excel-reader it comes 
out all jumbled
3. When I specify the type of the field correctly in Excel then 
php-excel-reader works perfectly. 

correct: 
01/01/2012  04215702194 50.00   6.14    41.90   08630890615787207995        50.00   0
incorrect: 
yyyy/mm/dd  
04215  50505050.5050;50505050.5050;50  6666.66;6666.66;6   42424242.4242
;42424242.4242;42   
0863089061     50505050.5050;50505050.5050;50  


[Only difference is that in Excel I have identified the fields correctly]

The problem is that I get my spreadsheet to be parsed from an incompetent 
company and they won't stick to an agreed template or detail like specifying 
field type. I simply cannot count on the column types to be specified in Excel 
and to do it myself every time defeats the point of using php-excel-reader 
(might as well just convert to csv).

Is there a way to override the automatic field identification and specify how 
php-excel-reader should interpret a column?

Original issue reported on code.google.com by michaelh...@gmail.com on 27 Feb 2012 at 9:35

Attachments:

• Sample.xls

Start by running php-excel-reader against the attached Sample.xls and trace its automatic field identification for General columns. Done means determining whether column interpretation can be overridden so mixed text, integer, float, and date values parse correctly, or documenting the limitation and a supported workaround.