Can java read excel files

I want to read and write an Excel file from Java with 3 columns and N rows, printing one string in each cell. Can anyone give me simple code snippet for this? Do I need to use any external lib or does Java have built-in support for it?

I want to do the following:

for(i=0; i <rows; i++)
     //read [i,col1] ,[i,col2], [i,col3]

for(i=0; i<rows; i++)
    //write [i,col1], [i,col2], [i,col3]

You can also consider JExcelApi. I find it better designed than POI. There’s a tutorial here.

For reading a xlsx file we can use Apache POI libs
Try this:

public static void readXLSXFile() throws IOException
    {
        InputStream ExcelFileToRead = new FileInputStream("C:/Test.xlsx");
        XSSFWorkbook  wb = new XSSFWorkbook(ExcelFileToRead);

        XSSFWorkbook test = new XSSFWorkbook(); 

        XSSFSheet sheet = wb.getSheetAt(0);
        XSSFRow row; 
        XSSFCell cell;

        Iterator rows = sheet.rowIterator();

        while (rows.hasNext())
        {
            row=(XSSFRow) rows.next();
            Iterator cells = row.cellIterator();
            while (cells.hasNext())
            {
                cell=(XSSFCell) cells.next();

                if (cell.getCellType() == XSSFCell.CELL_TYPE_STRING)
                {
                    System.out.print(cell.getStringCellValue()+" ");
                }
                else if(cell.getCellType() == XSSFCell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC)
                {
                    System.out.print(cell.getNumericCellValue()+" ");
                }
                else
                {
                    //U Can Handel Boolean, Formula, Errors
                }
            }
            System.out.println();
        }

    }

.csv or POI will certainly do it, but you should be aware of Andy Khan’s JExcel. I think it’s by far the best Java library for working with Excel there is.

A simple CSV file should suffice

String path="C:\Book2.xlsx";
try {

        File f = new File( path );
        Workbook wb = WorkbookFactory.create(f);
        Sheet mySheet = wb.getSheetAt(0);
        Iterator<Row> rowIter = mySheet.rowIterator();
        for ( Iterator<Row> rowIterator = mySheet.rowIterator() ;rowIterator.hasNext(); )
        {
            for (  Iterator<Cell> cellIterator = ((Row)rowIterator.next()).cellIterator() ; cellIterator.hasNext() ;  ) 
            {
                System.out.println ( ( (Cell)cellIterator.next() ).toString() );
            }
            System.out.println( " **************************************************************** ");
        }
    } catch ( Exception e )
    {
        System.out.println( "exception" );
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

and make sure to have added the jars poi and poi-ooxml (org.apache.poi) to your project

Sure , you will find the code below useful and easy to read and write. This is a util class which you can use in your main method and then you are good to use all methods below.

     public class ExcelUtils {
     private static XSSFSheet ExcelWSheet;
     private static XSSFWorkbook ExcelWBook;
     private static XSSFCell Cell;
     private static XSSFRow Row;
     File fileName = new File("C:\Users\satekuma\Pro\Fund.xlsx");
     public void setExcelFile(File Path, String SheetName) throws Exception                

    try {
        FileInputStream ExcelFile = new FileInputStream(Path);
        ExcelWBook = new XSSFWorkbook(ExcelFile);
        ExcelWSheet = ExcelWBook.getSheet(SheetName);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        throw (e);
    }

}


      public static String getCellData(int RowNum, int ColNum) throws Exception {

    try {
        Cell = ExcelWSheet.getRow(RowNum).getCell(ColNum);
        String CellData = Cell.getStringCellValue();
        return CellData;
    } catch (Exception e) {

        return "";

    }

}
public static void setCellData(String Result, int RowNum, int ColNum, File Path) throws Exception {

    try {
        Row = ExcelWSheet.createRow(RowNum - 1);
        Cell = Row.createCell(ColNum - 1);
        Cell.setCellValue(Result);
        FileOutputStream fileOut = new FileOutputStream(Path);
        ExcelWBook.write(fileOut);
        fileOut.flush();
        fileOut.close();
    } catch (Exception e) {

        throw (e);

    }

}

}

using spring apache poi repo

if (fileName.endsWith(".xls")) {



File myFile = new File("file location" + fileName);
                FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(myFile);

                org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Workbook workbook = null;
                try {
                    workbook = WorkbookFactory.create(fis);
                } catch (InvalidFormatException e) {

                    e.printStackTrace();
                }


                org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Sheet sheet = workbook.getSheetAt(0);


                Iterator<Row> rowIterator = sheet.iterator();


                while (rowIterator.hasNext()) {
                    Row row = rowIterator.next();

                    Iterator<Cell> cellIterator = row.cellIterator();
                    while (cellIterator.hasNext()) {

                        Cell cell = cellIterator.next();
                        switch (cell.getCellType()) {
                        case Cell.CELL_TYPE_STRING:
                            System.out.print(cell.getStringCellValue());
                            break;
                        case Cell.CELL_TYPE_BOOLEAN:
                            System.out.print(cell.getBooleanCellValue());
                            break;
                        case Cell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC:
                            System.out.print(cell.getNumericCellValue());
                            break;
                        }
                        System.out.print(" - ");
                    }
                    System.out.println();
                }
            }

I edited the most voted one a little cuz it didn’t count blanks columns or rows well not totally, so here is my code i tested it and now can get any cell in any part of an excel file. also now u can have blanks columns between filled column and it will read them

  try {
POIFSFileSystem fs = new POIFSFileSystem(new FileInputStream(Dir));
HSSFWorkbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook(fs);
HSSFSheet sheet = wb.getSheetAt(0);
HSSFRow row;
HSSFCell cell;

int rows; // No of rows
rows = sheet.getPhysicalNumberOfRows();

int cols = 0; // No of columns
int tmp = 0;
int cblacks=0;

// This trick ensures that we get the data properly even if it doesn't start from first few rows
for(int i = 0; i <= 10 || i <= rows; i++) {
    row = sheet.getRow(i);
    if(row != null) {
        tmp = sheet.getRow(i).getPhysicalNumberOfCells();
        if(tmp >= cols) cols = tmp;else{rows++;cblacks++;}
    }

    cols++;
}
cols=cols+cblacks;
for(int r = 0; r < rows; r++) {
    row = sheet.getRow(r);
    if(row != null) {
        for(int c = 0; c < cols; c++) {
            cell = row.getCell(c);
            if(cell != null) {
                System.out.print(cell+"n");//Your Code here
            }
        }
    }
}} catch(Exception ioe) {
ioe.printStackTrace();}

answered Oct 4, 2015 at 20:16

Another way to read/write Excel files is to use Windmill. It provides a fluent API to process Excel and CSV files.

Import data

try (Stream<Row> rowStream = Windmill.parse(FileSource.of(new FileInputStream("myFile.xlsx")))) {
  rowStream
    // skip the header row that contains the column names
    .skip(1)
    .forEach(row -> {
      System.out.println(
        "row n°" + row.rowIndex()
        + " column 'User login' value : " + row.cell("User login").asString()
        + " column n°3 number value : " + row.cell(2).asDouble().value() // index is zero-based
      );
    });
}

Export data

Windmill
  .export(Arrays.asList(bean1, bean2, bean3))
  .withHeaderMapping(
    new ExportHeaderMapping<Bean>()
      .add("Name", Bean::getName)
      .add("User login", bean -> bean.getUser().getLogin())
  )
  .asExcel()
  .writeTo(new FileOutputStream("Export.xlsx"));

answered Sep 30, 2017 at 15:07

You need Apache POI library and this code below should help you

    import java.io.File;
    import java.io.FileInputStream;
    import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
    import java.io.FileOutputStream;
    import java.io.IOException;
    import java.util.ArrayList;
    import java.util.List;
    import java.util.Iterator;
    //*************************************************************
    import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Sheet;
    import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Cell;
    import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Row;
    import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Workbook;
    import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFSheet;
    import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFWorkbook;

    //*************************************************************
   public class AdvUse {

    private static Workbook wb ; 
    private static Sheet sh ; 
    private static FileInputStream fis ; 
    private static FileOutputStream fos  ; 
    private static Row row  ; 
    private static Cell cell  ;
    private static String ExcelPath ; 

    //*************************************************************
    public static void setEcxelFile(String ExcelPath, String SheetName) throws Exception {
    try {
   File f= new File(ExcelPath); 
   if(!f.exists()){
       f.createNewFile();
       System.out.println("File not Found so created");
   }

    fis = new FileInputStream("./testData.xlsx");
    wb = WorkbookFactory.create(fis); 
    sh = wb.getSheet("SheetName");
    if(sh == null){
        sh = wb.getSheet(SheetName); 
    }
    }catch(Exception e)
    {System.out.println(e.getMessage());
    }
    }

      //*************************************************************
      public static void setCellData(String text , int rowno , int colno){
    try{
        row = sh.getRow(rowno);
        if(row == null){
            row = sh.createRow(rowno);
        }
        cell = row.getCell(colno);
        if(cell!=null){
            cell.setCellValue(text);

        }
        else{
            cell = row.createCell(colno);
            cell.setCellValue(text);

        }
        fos = new FileOutputStream(ExcelPath);
        wb.write(fos);
        fos.flush();
        fos.close();
    }catch(Exception e){
        System.out.println(e.getMessage());
    }
    }

      //*************************************************************
      public static String getCellData(int rowno , int colno){
        try{

            cell = sh.getRow(rowno).getCell(colno); 
            String CellData = null ;
            switch(cell.getCellType()){
            case  STRING :
                CellData = cell.getStringCellValue();
               break ; 
            case NUMERIC : 
                CellData = Double.toString(cell.getNumericCellValue());
                if(CellData.contains(".o")){
                    CellData = CellData.substring(0,CellData.length()-2);

                }
            break ; 
            case BLANK : 
            CellData = ""; break ; 

            }
            return CellData;
        }catch(Exception e){return ""; }
    }

       //*************************************************************
      public static int getLastRow(){
        return sh.getLastRowNum();
    }

answered Mar 30, 2019 at 16:48

You can not read & write same file in parallel(Read-write lock). But, we can do parallel operations on temporary data(i.e. Input/output stream). Write the data to file only after closing the input stream. Below steps should be followed.

• Open the file to Input stream
• Open the same file to an Output Stream
• Read and do the processing
• Write contents to output stream.
• Close the read/input stream, close file
• Close output stream, close file.

Apache POI — read/write same excel example

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.sql.Date;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Set;

import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Cell;
import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Row;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFSheet;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFWorkbook;


public class XLSXReaderWriter {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        try {
            File excel = new File("D://raju.xlsx");
            FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(excel);
            XSSFWorkbook book = new XSSFWorkbook(fis);
            XSSFSheet sheet = book.getSheetAt(0);

            Iterator<Row> itr = sheet.iterator();

            // Iterating over Excel file in Java
            while (itr.hasNext()) {
                Row row = itr.next();

                // Iterating over each column of Excel file
                Iterator<Cell> cellIterator = row.cellIterator();
                while (cellIterator.hasNext()) {

                    Cell cell = cellIterator.next();

                    switch (cell.getCellType()) {
                    case Cell.CELL_TYPE_STRING:
                        System.out.print(cell.getStringCellValue() + "t");
                        break;
                    case Cell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC:
                        System.out.print(cell.getNumericCellValue() + "t");
                        break;
                    case Cell.CELL_TYPE_BOOLEAN:
                        System.out.print(cell.getBooleanCellValue() + "t");
                        break;
                    default:

                    }
                }
                System.out.println("");
            }

            // writing data into XLSX file
            Map<String, Object[]> newData = new HashMap<String, Object[]>();
            newData.put("1", new Object[] { 1d, "Raju", "75K", "dev",
                    "SGD" });
            newData.put("2", new Object[] { 2d, "Ramesh", "58K", "test",
                    "USD" });
            newData.put("3", new Object[] { 3d, "Ravi", "90K", "PMO",
                    "INR" });

            Set<String> newRows = newData.keySet();
            int rownum = sheet.getLastRowNum();

            for (String key : newRows) {
                Row row = sheet.createRow(rownum++);
                Object[] objArr = newData.get(key);
                int cellnum = 0;
                for (Object obj : objArr) {
                    Cell cell = row.createCell(cellnum++);
                    if (obj instanceof String) {
                        cell.setCellValue((String) obj);
                    } else if (obj instanceof Boolean) {
                        cell.setCellValue((Boolean) obj);
                    } else if (obj instanceof Date) {
                        cell.setCellValue((Date) obj);
                    } else if (obj instanceof Double) {
                        cell.setCellValue((Double) obj);
                    }
                }
            }

            // open an OutputStream to save written data into Excel file
            FileOutputStream os = new FileOutputStream(excel);
            book.write(os);
            System.out.println("Writing on Excel file Finished ...");

            // Close workbook, OutputStream and Excel file to prevent leak
            os.close();
            book.close();
            fis.close();

        } catch (FileNotFoundException fe) {
            fe.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException ie) {
            ie.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Please use Apache POI libs and try this.

    try
    {
        FileInputStream x = new FileInputStream(new File("/Users/rajesh/Documents/rajesh.xls"));

        //Create Workbook instance holding reference to .xlsx file
        Workbook workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(x);

        //Get first/desired sheet from the workbook
        Sheet sheet = workbook.getSheetAt(0);

        //Iterate through each rows one by one
        for (Iterator<Row> iterator = sheet.iterator(); iterator.hasNext();) {
            Row row = (Row) iterator.next();
            for (Iterator<Cell> iterator2 = row.iterator(); iterator2
                    .hasNext();) {
                Cell cell = (Cell) iterator2.next();
                System.out.println(cell.getStringCellValue());              
            }               
        }         
        x.close();
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
   }
}

When using the apache poi 4.1.2. The celltype changes a bit. Below is an example

    try {
        File excel = new File("/home/name/Downloads/bb.xlsx");
        FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(excel);
        XSSFWorkbook book = new XSSFWorkbook(fis);
        XSSFSheet sheet = book.getSheetAt(0);

        Iterator<Row> itr = sheet.iterator();

        // Iterating over Excel file in Java
        while (itr.hasNext()) {
            Row row = itr.next();

            Iterator<Cell> cellIterator = row.cellIterator();
            while (cellIterator.hasNext()) {



                Cell cell = cellIterator.next();



                switch (cell.getCellType()) {
                case STRING:
                    System.out.print(cell.getStringCellValue() + "t");
                    break;
                case NUMERIC:
                    System.out.print(cell.getNumericCellValue() + "t");
                    break;
                case BOOLEAN:
                    System.out.print(cell.getBooleanCellValue() + "t");
                    break;
                default:


                }
            }
            System.out.println("");}
        }catch (Exception e) {
            // TODO: handle exception
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

answered May 22, 2020 at 8:44

If you go for third party library option, try using Aspose.Cells API that enables Java Applications to create (read/write) and manage Excel spreadsheets efficiently without requiring Microsoft Excel.

e.g

Sample code:

1.

//Load sample workbook
Workbook wb = new Workbook(dirPath + "sample.xlsx");

//Access first worksheet
Worksheet ws = wb.getWorksheets().get(0);

//Access cells iterator
Iterator itrat = ws.getCells().iterator();

//Print cells name in iterator
while(itrat.hasNext())
{
    Cell cell = (Cell)itrat.next();

    System.out.println(cell.getName() + ": " + cell.getStringValue().trim());
}

Workbook book = new Workbook("sample.xlsx");
Worksheet sheet = book.getWorksheets().get(0);
Range range = sheet.getCells().getMaxDisplayRange();//You may also create your desired range (in the worksheet) using, e.g sheet.getCells().createRange("A1", "J11");
Iterator rangeIterator = range.iterator();
while(rangeIterator.hasNext())
{
Cell cell = (Cell)rangeIterator.next();
//your code goes here.
}

Hope, this helps a bit.

PS. I am working as Support developer/ Evangelist at Aspose.

answered Sep 2, 2020 at 19:29

If you need to do anything more with office documents in Java, go for POI as mentioned.

For simple reading/writing an excel document like you requested, you can use the CSV format (also as mentioned):

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.util.Scanner;

public class CsvWriter {
 public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException {

  String fileName = "test.xls";

  PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(new FileWriter(fileName));
  out.println("a,b,c,d");
  out.println("e,f,g,h");
  out.println("i,j,k,l");
  out.close();

  BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fileName));
  String line = null;
  while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {

   Scanner scanner = new Scanner(line);
   String sep = "";
   while (scanner.hasNext()) {
    System.out.println(sep + scanner.next());
    sep = ",";
   }
  }
  in.close();
 }
}

answered Oct 4, 2009 at 12:02