All about excel in selenium

File IO is a critical part of any software process. We frequently create a file, open it & update something or delete it in our Computers. Same is the case with Selenium Automation. We need a process to manipulate files with Selenium.

Java provides us different classes for File Manipulation with Selenium. In this tutorial, we are going to learn how can we read and write on Excel file with the help of Java IO package and Apache POI library.

• How to handle excel file using POI (Maven POM Dependency)
• Classes and Interfaces in POI
• Read/Write operation
• Read data from Excel file
• Write data on Excel file
• Excel Manipulation using JXL API

Exporting Excel

How to handle excel file using POI (Maven POM Dependency)

To Read and Write Excel file in Java, Apache provides a very famous library POI. This library is capable enough to read and write both XLS and XLSX file format of Excel.

To read XLS files, an HSSF implementation is provided by POI library.

To read XLSX, XSSF implementation of POI library will be the choice. Let’s study these implementations in detail.

If you are using Maven in your project, the Maven dependency will be

<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
<artifactId>poi</artifactId>
<version>4.1.1</version>
</dependency>

Or you can simply download the latest version POI jars from http://poi.apache.org/download.html & download the latest zip file

When you download the zip file for this jar, you need to unzip it and add these all jars to the class path of your project.

Classes and Interfaces in POI:

Following is a list of different Java Interfaces and classes in POI for reading XLS and XLSX file-

• Workbook: XSSFWorkbook and HSSFWorkbook classes implement this interface.
• XSSFWorkbook: Is a class representation of XLSX file.
• HSSFWorkbook: Is a class representation of XLS file.
• Sheet: XSSFSheet and HSSFSheet classes implement this interface.
• XSSFSheet: Is a class representing a sheet in an XLSX file.
• HSSFSheet: Is a class representing a sheet in an XLS file.
• Row: XSSFRow and HSSFRow classes implement this interface.
• XSSFRow: Is a class representing a row in the sheet of XLSX file.
• HSSFRow: Is a class representing a row in the sheet of XLS file.
• Cell: XSSFCell and HSSFCell classes implement this interface.
• XSSFCell: Is a class representing a cell in a row of XLSX file.

• HSSFCell: Is a class representing a cell in a row of XLS file.

Read/Write operation-

For our example, we will consider below given Excel file format

Complete Example: Here we are trying to read data from Excel in Selenium:

package excelExportAndFileIO;

import java.io.File;

import java.io.FileInputStream;

import java.io.IOException;

import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook;

import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Row;

import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Sheet;

import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Workbook;

import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFWorkbook;

public class ReadGuru99ExcelFile {

    public void readExcel(String filePath,String fileName,String sheetName) throws IOException{

    //Create an object of File class to open xlsx file

    File file =    new File(filePath+"\"+fileName);

    //Create an object of FileInputStream class to read excel file

    FileInputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream(file);

    Workbook guru99Workbook = null;

    //Find the file extension by splitting file name in substring  and getting only extension name

    String fileExtensionName = fileName.substring(fileName.indexOf("."));

    //Check condition if the file is xlsx file

    if(fileExtensionName.equals(".xlsx")){

    //If it is xlsx file then create object of XSSFWorkbook class

    guru99Workbook = new XSSFWorkbook(inputStream);

    }

    //Check condition if the file is xls file

    else if(fileExtensionName.equals(".xls")){

        //If it is xls file then create object of HSSFWorkbook class

        guru99Workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(inputStream);

    }

    //Read sheet inside the workbook by its name

    Sheet guru99Sheet = guru99Workbook.getSheet(sheetName);

    //Find number of rows in excel file

    int rowCount = guru99Sheet.getLastRowNum()-guru99Sheet.getFirstRowNum();

    //Create a loop over all the rows of excel file to read it

    for (int i = 0; i < rowCount+1; i++) {

        Row row = guru99Sheet.getRow(i);

        //Create a loop to print cell values in a row

        for (int j = 0; j < row.getLastCellNum(); j++) {

            //Print Excel data in console

            System.out.print(row.getCell(j).getStringCellValue()+"|| ");

        }

        System.out.println();
    } 

    }  

    //Main function is calling readExcel function to read data from excel file

    public static void main(String...strings) throws IOException{

    //Create an object of ReadGuru99ExcelFile class

    ReadGuru99ExcelFile objExcelFile = new ReadGuru99ExcelFile();

    //Prepare the path of excel file

    String filePath = System.getProperty("user.dir")+"\src\excelExportAndFileIO";

    //Call read file method of the class to read data

    objExcelFile.readExcel(filePath,"ExportExcel.xlsx","ExcelGuru99Demo");

    }

}

Note: We are not using the Testng framework here. Run the class as Java Application using function read excel in Selenium as shown in above example.

Write data on Excel file

Complete Example: Here we are trying to write data from Excel file by adding new row in Excel file

package excelExportAndFileIO;

import java.io.File;

import java.io.FileInputStream;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;

import java.io.IOException;

import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook;

import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Cell;

import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Row;

import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Sheet;

import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Workbook;

import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFWorkbook;

public class WriteGuru99ExcelFile {

    public void writeExcel(String filePath,String fileName,String sheetName,String[] dataToWrite) throws IOException{

        //Create an object of File class to open xlsx file

        File file =    new File(filePath+"\"+fileName);

        //Create an object of FileInputStream class to read excel file

        FileInputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream(file);

        Workbook guru99Workbook = null;

        //Find the file extension by splitting  file name in substring and getting only extension name

        String fileExtensionName = fileName.substring(fileName.indexOf("."));

        //Check condition if the file is xlsx file

        if(fileExtensionName.equals(".xlsx")){

        //If it is xlsx file then create object of XSSFWorkbook class

        guru99Workbook = new XSSFWorkbook(inputStream);

        }

        //Check condition if the file is xls file

        else if(fileExtensionName.equals(".xls")){

            //If it is xls file then create object of XSSFWorkbook class

            guru99Workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(inputStream);

        }    

    //Read excel sheet by sheet name    

    Sheet sheet = guru99Workbook.getSheet(sheetName);

    //Get the current count of rows in excel file

    int rowCount = sheet.getLastRowNum()-sheet.getFirstRowNum();

    //Get the first row from the sheet

    Row row = sheet.getRow(0);

    //Create a new row and append it at last of sheet

    Row newRow = sheet.createRow(rowCount+1);

    //Create a loop over the cell of newly created Row

    for(int j = 0; j < row.getLastCellNum(); j++){

        //Fill data in row

        Cell cell = newRow.createCell(j);

        cell.setCellValue(dataToWrite[j]);

    }

    //Close input stream

    inputStream.close();

    //Create an object of FileOutputStream class to create write data in excel file

    FileOutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream(file);

    //write data in the excel file

    guru99Workbook.write(outputStream);

    //close output stream

    outputStream.close();
	
    }

    public static void main(String...strings) throws IOException{

        //Create an array with the data in the same order in which you expect to be filled in excel file

        String[] valueToWrite = {"Mr. E","Noida"};

        //Create an object of current class

        WriteGuru99ExcelFile objExcelFile = new WriteGuru99ExcelFile();

        //Write the file using file name, sheet name and the data to be filled

        objExcelFile.writeExcel(System.getProperty("user.dir")+"\src\excelExportAndFileIO","ExportExcel.xlsx","ExcelGuru99Demo",valueToWrite);

    }

}

Excel Manipulation using JXL API

JXL is also another famous jar to read Excel file in Java and writing files. Nowadays, POI is used in most of the projects, but before POI, JXL was only Java API for Excel manipulation. It is a very small and simple API for excel reading in Selenium.

TIPS: My suggestion is not to use JXL in any new project because the library is not in active development from 2010 and lack of the feature in compare to POI API.

Download JXL:

If you want to work with JXL, you can download it from this link

https://sourceforge.net/projects/jexcelapi/files/jexcelapi/2.6.12/

You can also get demo example inside this zipped file for JXL.

Some of the features:

• JXL is able to read Excel file in Selenium for 95, 97, 2000, XP, 2003 workbook.
• We can work with English, French, Spanish, German.
• Copying a Chart and image insertion in Excel is possible

Drawback:

• We can write Excel 97 and later only (writing in Excel 95 is not supported).
• JXL does not support XLSX format of excel file.
• It Generates spreadsheet in Excel 2000 format.

Summary:

• Excel file can be read by Java IO operation. For that, we need to use Apache POI Jar.
• There are two kinds of a workbook in Excel file, XLSX and XLS files.
• POI has different Interfaces Workbook, Sheet, Row, Cell.
• These interfaces are implemented by corresponding XLS (HSSFWorkbook, HSSFSheet, HSSFRow, HSSFCell) and XLSX (XSSFWorkbook, XSSFSheet, XSSFRow, XSSFCell) file manipulation classes.
• JXL is another API for Excel handling in Selenium.
• JXL cannot work with XLSX format of excel.

In the previous articles on Selenium Python Tutorial, we have covered “Handling Cookies in Selenium Python“. In this tutorial, we will learn Working with excel in Selenium Python. 

We can work with the excel workbook in Selenium WebDriver. Excel, also called a spreadsheet can have extensions like .xlsx, .xlsm, and so on. Excel consists of multiple worksheets.

Each worksheet is divided into rows and columns both having an address. The address of rows starts from 1 and the column address begins from A. A cell inside a worksheet is the intersection point of a row and a column.

Each cell in a worksheet has a unique address defined by the combination of row and column address. Out of the multiple worksheets in a workbook, the worksheet on which we are currently working is known as the active worksheet.

While working with the Selenium tool along with language Python, we use the OpenPyXL library to access Excel from version 2010. Python does not provide this library automatically.

We need to run the command pip install openpyxl to get the OpenPyXL library. Also we have to add an import openpyxl statement in our code to get all the methods under that library.

To fetch the active worksheet in a workbook, we have to use the load_workbook () method which takes the path of the Excel as its parameter then uses the active method.

Code Implementation to identify active worksheet.

import openpyxl
# to load the workbook with its path
bk = openpyxl.load_workbook(“C:\STM\Python.xlsx”)
# to identify active worksheet
s = bk.active

To read the value of a particular cell, we need to follow all the above steps. Then we have to apply the cell () method on the active worksheet object. This method contains the row and column number as parameters. Finally we shall use the value method to actually read the cell data.

Code Implementation to read a cell value.

import openpyxl
# to load the workbook with its path
bk = openpyxl.load_workbook(“C:\STM\Python.xlsx”)
# to identify active worksheet
s = bk.active
# to identify the cell
c = s.cell (row = 3, column = 1)
# to retrieve the cell value and print
print ( c.value)

To write the value on a particular cell, we need to identify the active worksheet. Then we have to apply the cell () method on the active worksheet object. This method contains the row and column number as parameters.

Next, to set a value, we have to use the value method. Finally to save the workbook, we have to apply the save () method on the workbook object. The save () method takes the path of the file to be saved as a parameter.

Code Implementation to write a cell value.

import openpyxl
# to load the workbook with its path
bk = openpyxl.load_workbook(“C:\STM\Python.xlsx”)
# to identify active worksheet
s = bk.active
# to identify the cell
c = s.cell (row = 2, column = 8)
# to write a value in that cell
s.cell (row = 2, column = 8).value = "Python"
# to save the workbook in location
bk.save ("C:\STM\Python.xlsx")

To get the maximum number of rows and columns in the worksheet, we need to identify the active worksheet. Then we have to apply the max_row method on the active worksheet object to get the total occupied rows count. Also, we have to apply the max_column method on the active worksheet object to get the total occupied columns count.

Code Implementation to identify maximum occupied row and column count.

import openpyxl
# to load the workbook with its path
bk = openpyxl.load_workbook(“C:\STM\Python.xlsx”)
# to identify active worksheet
s = bk.active
# to identify maximum rows count
print ( s.max_row)
# to identify maximum columns count
print ( s.max_column)

To get all the cell data in the worksheet, we need to identify the active worksheet. Then we have to apply the max_row method on the active worksheet object to get the total occupied rows count. Also, we have to apply the max_column method on the active worksheet object to get the total occupied columns count.

To obtain the cell data, we shall then iterate through the maximum number of rows and columns that are occupied in the worksheet and then retrieve the cell value.

Code Implementation to get all the cell values in the worksheet.

import openpyxl
# to load the workbook with its path
bk = openpyxl.load_workbook(“C:\STM\Python.xlsx”)
# to identify active worksheet
s = bk.active
# to identify maximum rows count
print ( s.max_row)
# iterate till the count of occupied rows
for m in range ( 1, s.max_row + 1):
# iterate till the count of occupied columns
for n in range ( 1, s.max_column + 1):
# to get the cell data and print
print (s.cell (row=m, column=n). value) 

To get all the cell data of a particular row in the worksheet, we need to identify the active worksheet. Then we have to apply the max_row method on the active worksheet object to get the total occupied rows count. Also, we have to apply the max_column method on the active worksheet object to get the total occupied columns count.

To obtain the cell data, we shall then iterate through the maximum number of rows and columns that are occupied in the worksheet and then retrieve the cell value. Once we get the cell value we shall execute a conditional statement, and get all the values from a specific row which matches our requirement.

Let us consider a workbook having a worksheet with the above set of data. Suppose we want to get the Student details for the topic Python.

Code Implementation for the above scenario.

import openpyxl
# to load the workbook with its path
bk = openpyxl.load_workbook(“C:\STM\Python.xlsx”)
# to identify active worksheet
s = bk.active
# to identify maximum rows count
print ( s.max_row)
# iterate till the count of occupied rows
for m in range ( 1, s.max_row + 1): 
# to get all the cell values from column 1
if s.cell (row=m, column=1).value == "Python" :
# iterate till the count of occupied columns
for n in range ( 1, s.max_column + 1):
# to get all the cell data from a row and print
print (s.cell (row=m, column=n). value) 

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