PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet · error · PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Exception

Can only get pseudo-border for supervisor.

Error message

Can only get pseudo-border for supervisor.

What it means

Borders::getAllBorders() returns the 'allBorders' pseudo-border, which exists only on a supervisor Borders instance — the one attached to a Style used through $sheet->getStyle(...). A standalone (non-supervisor) Borders object, e.g. from new Style() or new Borders(), has no worksheet/range context to fan operations out to, so the getter throws 'Can only get pseudo-border for supervisor.'

Source

Thrown at src/PhpSpreadsheet/Style/Borders.php:257

    {
        return $this->bottom;
    }

    /**
     * Get Diagonal.
     */
    public function getDiagonal(): Border
    {
        return $this->diagonal;
    }

    /**
     * Get AllBorders (pseudo-border). Only applies to supervisor.
     */
    public function getAllBorders(): Border
    {
        if (!$this->isSupervisor) {
            throw new PhpSpreadsheetException('Can only get pseudo-border for supervisor.');
        }

        return $this->allBorders;
    }

    /**
     * Get Outline (pseudo-border). Only applies to supervisor.
     */
    public function getOutline(): Border
    {
        if (!$this->isSupervisor) {
            throw new PhpSpreadsheetException('Can only get pseudo-border for supervisor.');
        }

        return $this->outline;
    }

    /**

View on GitHub (pinned to 65b080eef4)

Solutions

1. Work through the supervisor route: $spreadsheet->getActiveSheet()->getStyle('A1')->getBorders()->getAllBorders().
2. On standalone Borders, set the four concrete sides individually (top/bottom/left/right) or applyFromArray per side.
3. To apply all/outline/inside borders to a range, call $sheet->getStyle($range)->applyFromArray(['borders' => ['allBorders' => [...]]]) which operates in supervisor mode.

Example fix

// before
$borders = new \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Style\Borders();
$borders->getAllBorders()->setBorderStyle(...); // throws

// after
$sheet->getStyle('A1:D10')->applyFromArray([
    'borders' => [
        'allBorders' => ['borderStyle' => \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Style\Border::BORDER_THIN],
    ],
]);

// Only call pseudo-border getters on a supervisor obtained via getStyle()
$style = $sheet->getStyle('A1:D10');
$allBorders = $style->getBorders()->getAllBorders(); // OK: supervisor
$allBorders->applyFromArray(['borderStyle' => \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Style\Border::BORDER_THIN]);

/** No public isSupervisor flag exists — narrow by origin instead. */
function bordersAreSupervisor(\PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Worksheet\Worksheet $sheet, string $range, \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Style\Borders $b): bool
{
    // supervisor Borders are exactly those reached via $sheet->getStyle($range)->getBorders()
    return $b === $sheet->getStyle($range)->getBorders();
}

try {
    $borders->getAllBorders()->applyFromArray($arr);
} catch (\PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Exception $e) {
    // non-supervisor: set each concrete side instead
    foreach (['Top', 'Bottom', 'Left', 'Right'] as $side) {
        $borders->{"get$side"()}->applyFromArray($arr);
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: (new \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Style\Borders())->getAllBorders(); (new Style())->getBorders()->getAllBorders(); reaching into a cloned/detached style component (e.g. via getStyle()->getBorders() on an unattached Style) and then calling getAllBorders(); same for getOutline()/getInside().

Common situations: Building Style objects by hand to pass into applyFromArray and accidentally chaining pseudo-border getters; inspection/reflection code that iterates every style sub-object; porting snippets that assumed the object came from getStyle().

Related errors

• Cannot get shared component for a pseudo-border.
• No default style found for this workbook
• CellXf index is out of bounds.
• CellStyleXf index is out of bounds.
• Text rotation {$angleInDegrees} should be a value between -9

AI-assisted analysis of PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet@65b080eef4 (2026-08-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/211b8a1cdef1f18a. Report an issue: GitHub.