Any help is very appreciated !

When I comment out all of the db code, I can create an excel file with 20130729 in column D (cells 2 to 212) by changing:

$xWS->write('D2:D212', $user_date);
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to:

$xWS->write($_, 3, $user_date) for 1 .. 211;
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I don't think 'D2:D212' is a valid cell range specifier (see Spreadsheet::WriteExcel).