Writing excel java poi

Learn to read excel, write excel, evaluate formula cells and apply custom formatting to the generated excel files using Apache POI library with examples.

If we are building software for the HR or Finance domain, there is usually a requirement for generating excel reports across management levels. Apart from reports, we can also expect some input data for the applications coming in the form of excel sheets and the application is expected to support this requirement.

Apache POI is a well-trusted library among many other open-source libraries to handle such usecases involving excel files. Please note that, in addition, we can read and write MS Word and MS PowerPoint files also using the Apache POI library.

This Apache POI tutorial will discuss some everyday excel operations in real-life applications.

  1. 1. Maven Dependency
  2. 2. Important Classes in POI Library
  3. 3. Writing an Excel File
  4. 4. Reading an Excel File
  5. 5. Add and Evaluate Formula Cells
  6. 6. Formatting the Cells
  7. 7. Conclusion

1. Maven Dependency

If we are working on a maven project, we can include the Apache POI dependencies in pom.xml file using this:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
  <artifactId>poi</artifactId>
  <version>5.2.2</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
  <artifactId>poi-ooxml</artifactId>
  <version>5.2.2</version>
</dependency>

2. Important Classes in POI Library

  1. HSSF, XSSF and XSSF classes

    Apache POI main classes usually start with either HSSF, XSSF or SXSSF.

    • HSSF – is the POI Project’s pure Java implementation of the Excel 97(-2007) file format. e.g., HSSFWorkbook, HSSFSheet.
    • XSSF – is the POI Project’s pure Java implementation of the Excel 2007 OOXML (.xlsx) file format. e.g., XSSFWorkbook, XSSFSheet.
    • SXSSF (since 3.8-beta3) – is an API-compatible streaming extension of XSSF to be used when huge spreadsheets have to be produced and heap space is limited. e.g., SXSSFWorkbook, SXSSFSheet. SXSSF achieves its low memory footprint by limiting access to the rows within a sliding window, while XSSF gives access to all rows in the document.
  2. Row and Cell

    Apart from the above classes, Row and Cell interact with a particular row and a particular cell in an excel sheet.

  3. Styling Related Classes

    A wide range of classes like CellStyle, BuiltinFormats, ComparisonOperator, ConditionalFormattingRule, FontFormatting, IndexedColors, PatternFormatting, SheetConditionalFormatting etc. are used when you have to add formatting to a sheet, primarily based on some rules.

  4. FormulaEvaluator

    Another helpful class FormulaEvaluator is used to evaluate the formula cells in an excel sheet.

3. Writing an Excel File

I am taking this example first so we can reuse the excel sheet created by this code in further examples.

Writing excel using POI is very simple and involves the following steps:

  1. Create a workbook
  2. Create a sheet in workbook
  3. Create a row in sheet
  4. Add cells to sheet
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to write more data

It seems very simple, right? Let’s have a look at the code doing these steps.

Java program to write an excel file using Apache POI library.

package com.howtodoinjava.demo.poi;
//import statements
public class WriteExcelDemo 
{
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        //Blank workbook
        XSSFWorkbook workbook = new XSSFWorkbook(); 
         
        //Create a blank sheet
        XSSFSheet sheet = workbook.createSheet("Employee Data");
          
        //This data needs to be written (Object[])
        Map<String, Object[]> data = new TreeMap<String, Object[]>();
        data.put("1", new Object[] {"ID", "NAME", "LASTNAME"});
        data.put("2", new Object[] {1, "Amit", "Shukla"});
        data.put("3", new Object[] {2, "Lokesh", "Gupta"});
        data.put("4", new Object[] {3, "John", "Adwards"});
        data.put("5", new Object[] {4, "Brian", "Schultz"});
          
        //Iterate over data and write to sheet
        Set<String> keyset = data.keySet();
        int rownum = 0;
        for (String key : keyset)
        {
            Row row = sheet.createRow(rownum++);
            Object [] objArr = data.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 Integer)
                    cell.setCellValue((Integer)obj);
            }
        }
        try
        {
            //Write the workbook in file system
            FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(new File("howtodoinjava_demo.xlsx"));
            workbook.write(out);
            out.close();
            System.out.println("howtodoinjava_demo.xlsx written successfully on disk.");
        } 
        catch (Exception e) 
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}
poi-demo-write-file

See Also: Appending Rows to Excel

4. Reading an Excel File

Reading an excel file using POI is also very simple if we divide this into steps.

  1. Create workbook instance from an excel sheet
  2. Get to the desired sheet
  3. Increment row number
  4. iterate over all cells in a row
  5. repeat steps 3 and 4 until all data is read

Let’s see all the above steps in code. I am writing the code to read the excel file created in the above example. It will read all the column names and the values in it – cell by cell.

Java program to read an excel file using Apache POI library.

package com.howtodoinjava.demo.poi;
//import statements
public class ReadExcelDemo 
{
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        try
        {
            FileInputStream file = new FileInputStream(new File("howtodoinjava_demo.xlsx"));
 
            //Create Workbook instance holding reference to .xlsx file
            XSSFWorkbook workbook = new XSSFWorkbook(file);
 
            //Get first/desired sheet from the workbook
            XSSFSheet sheet = workbook.getSheetAt(0);
 
            //Iterate through each rows one by one
            Iterator<Row> rowIterator = sheet.iterator();
            while (rowIterator.hasNext()) 
            {
                Row row = rowIterator.next();
                //For each row, iterate through all the columns
                Iterator<Cell> cellIterator = row.cellIterator();
                 
                while (cellIterator.hasNext()) 
                {
                    Cell cell = cellIterator.next();
                    //Check the cell type and format accordingly
                    switch (cell.getCellType()) 
                    {
                        case Cell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC:
                            System.out.print(cell.getNumericCellValue() + "t");
                            break;
                        case Cell.CELL_TYPE_STRING:
                            System.out.print(cell.getStringCellValue() + "t");
                            break;
                    }
                }
                System.out.println("");
            }
            file.close();
        } 
        catch (Exception e) 
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Program Output:

ID      NAME        LASTNAME
1.0     Amit        Shukla  
2.0     Lokesh      Gupta   
3.0     John        Adwards 
4.0     Brian       Schultz 

See Also: Apache POI – Read an Excel File using SAX Parser

5. Add and Evaluate Formula Cells

When working on complex excel sheets, we encounter many cells with formulas to calculate their values. These are formula cells. Apache POI also has excellent support for adding formula cells and evaluating already present formula cells.

Let’s see one example of how to add formula cells in excel?

The sheet has four cells in a row and the fourth one in the multiplication of all the previous 3 rows. So the formula will be: A2*B2*C2 (in the second row)

Java program to add formula in an excel file using Apache POI library.

public static void main(String[] args) 
{
    XSSFWorkbook workbook = new XSSFWorkbook();
    XSSFSheet sheet = workbook.createSheet("Calculate Simple Interest");
  
    Row header = sheet.createRow(0);
    header.createCell(0).setCellValue("Pricipal");
    header.createCell(1).setCellValue("RoI");
    header.createCell(2).setCellValue("T");
    header.createCell(3).setCellValue("Interest (P r t)");
      
    Row dataRow = sheet.createRow(1);
    dataRow.createCell(0).setCellValue(14500d);
    dataRow.createCell(1).setCellValue(9.25);
    dataRow.createCell(2).setCellValue(3d);
    dataRow.createCell(3).setCellFormula("A2*B2*C2");
      
    try {
        FileOutputStream out =  new FileOutputStream(new File("formulaDemo.xlsx"));
        workbook.write(out);
        out.close();
        System.out.println("Excel with foumula cells written successfully");
          
    } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

Similarly, we want to read a file with formula cells and use the following logic to evaluate formula cells.

Java program to evaluate formula in an excel file using Apache POI library.

public static void readSheetWithFormula()
{
    try
    {
        FileInputStream file = new FileInputStream(new File("formulaDemo.xlsx"));
 
        //Create Workbook instance holding reference to .xlsx file
        XSSFWorkbook workbook = new XSSFWorkbook(file);
 
        FormulaEvaluator evaluator = workbook.getCreationHelper().createFormulaEvaluator();
         
        //Get first/desired sheet from the workbook
        XSSFSheet sheet = workbook.getSheetAt(0);
 
        //Iterate through each rows one by one
        Iterator<Row> rowIterator = sheet.iterator();
        while (rowIterator.hasNext()) 
        {
            Row row = rowIterator.next();
            //For each row, iterate through all the columns
            Iterator<Cell> cellIterator = row.cellIterator();
             
            while (cellIterator.hasNext()) 
            {
                Cell cell = cellIterator.next();
                //Check the cell type after eveluating formulae
                //If it is formula cell, it will be evaluated otherwise no change will happen
                switch (evaluator.evaluateInCell(cell).getCellType()) 
                {
                    case Cell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC:
                        System.out.print(cell.getNumericCellValue() + "tt");
                        break;
                    case Cell.CELL_TYPE_STRING:
                        System.out.print(cell.getStringCellValue() + "tt");
                        break;
                    case Cell.CELL_TYPE_FORMULA:
                        //Not again
                        break;
                }
            }
            System.out.println("");
        }
        file.close();
    } 
    catch (Exception e) 
    {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

Program Output:

Pricipal        RoI         T       Interest (P r t)        
14500.0         9.25        3.0     402375.0  
poi-demo-write-formula

6. Formatting the Cells

So far we have seen examples of reading/writing and excel files using Apache POI. But, when creating a report in an excel file, it is essential to add formatting on cells that fit into any pre-determined criteria.

This formatting can be a different coloring based on a specific value range, expiry date limit etc.

In the below examples, we are taking a couple of such cell formatting examples for various purposes.

6.1. Cell value in a specific range

This code will color any cell in a range whose value is between a configured range. [e.g., between 50 and 70]

static void basedOnValue(Sheet sheet) 
{
    //Creating some random values
    sheet.createRow(0).createCell(0).setCellValue(84);
    sheet.createRow(1).createCell(0).setCellValue(74);
    sheet.createRow(2).createCell(0).setCellValue(50);
    sheet.createRow(3).createCell(0).setCellValue(51);
    sheet.createRow(4).createCell(0).setCellValue(49);
    sheet.createRow(5).createCell(0).setCellValue(41);
 
    SheetConditionalFormatting sheetCF = sheet.getSheetConditionalFormatting();
 
    //Condition 1: Cell Value Is   greater than  70   (Blue Fill)
    ConditionalFormattingRule rule1 = sheetCF.createConditionalFormattingRule(ComparisonOperator.GT, "70");
    PatternFormatting fill1 = rule1.createPatternFormatting();
    fill1.setFillBackgroundColor(IndexedColors.BLUE.index);
    fill1.setFillPattern(PatternFormatting.SOLID_FOREGROUND);
 
    //Condition 2: Cell Value Is  less than      50   (Green Fill)
    ConditionalFormattingRule rule2 = sheetCF.createConditionalFormattingRule(ComparisonOperator.LT, "50");
    PatternFormatting fill2 = rule2.createPatternFormatting();
    fill2.setFillBackgroundColor(IndexedColors.GREEN.index);
    fill2.setFillPattern(PatternFormatting.SOLID_FOREGROUND);
 
    CellRangeAddress[] regions = {
            CellRangeAddress.valueOf("A1:A6")
    };
 
    sheetCF.addConditionalFormatting(regions, rule1, rule2);
}
poi-demo-formatting-1

6.2. Highlight Duplicate Values

Highlight all cells which have duplicate values in observed cells.

static void formatDuplicates(Sheet sheet) {
    sheet.createRow(0).createCell(0).setCellValue("Code");
    sheet.createRow(1).createCell(0).setCellValue(4);
    sheet.createRow(2).createCell(0).setCellValue(3);
    sheet.createRow(3).createCell(0).setCellValue(6);
    sheet.createRow(4).createCell(0).setCellValue(3);
    sheet.createRow(5).createCell(0).setCellValue(5);
    sheet.createRow(6).createCell(0).setCellValue(8);
    sheet.createRow(7).createCell(0).setCellValue(0);
    sheet.createRow(8).createCell(0).setCellValue(2);
    sheet.createRow(9).createCell(0).setCellValue(8);
    sheet.createRow(10).createCell(0).setCellValue(6);
 
    SheetConditionalFormatting sheetCF = sheet.getSheetConditionalFormatting();
 
    // Condition 1: Formula Is   =A2=A1   (White Font)
    ConditionalFormattingRule rule1 = sheetCF.createConditionalFormattingRule("COUNTIF($A$2:$A$11,A2)>1");
    FontFormatting font = rule1.createFontFormatting();
    font.setFontStyle(false, true);
    font.setFontColorIndex(IndexedColors.BLUE.index);
 
    CellRangeAddress[] regions = {
            CellRangeAddress.valueOf("A2:A11")
    };
 
    sheetCF.addConditionalFormatting(regions, rule1);
 
    sheet.getRow(2).createCell(1).setCellValue("<== Duplicates numbers in the column are highlighted.  " +
            "Condition: Formula Is =COUNTIF($A$2:$A$11,A2)>1   (Blue Font)");
}
poi-demo-formatting-2

6.3. Alternate Color Rows in Different Colors

A simple code to color each alternate row in a different color.

static void shadeAlt(Sheet sheet) {
    SheetConditionalFormatting sheetCF = sheet.getSheetConditionalFormatting();
 
    // Condition 1: Formula Is   =A2=A1   (White Font)
    ConditionalFormattingRule rule1 = sheetCF.createConditionalFormattingRule("MOD(ROW(),2)");
    PatternFormatting fill1 = rule1.createPatternFormatting();
    fill1.setFillBackgroundColor(IndexedColors.LIGHT_GREEN.index);
    fill1.setFillPattern(PatternFormatting.SOLID_FOREGROUND);
 
    CellRangeAddress[] regions = {
            CellRangeAddress.valueOf("A1:Z100")
    };
 
    sheetCF.addConditionalFormatting(regions, rule1);
 
    sheet.createRow(0).createCell(1).setCellValue("Shade Alternating Rows");
    sheet.createRow(1).createCell(1).setCellValue("Condition: Formula Is  =MOD(ROW(),2)   (Light Green Fill)");
}
poi-demo-formatting-3

6.4. Color amounts that are going to expire in the next 30 days

A handy code for financial projects which keeps track of deadlines.

static void expiryInNext30Days(Sheet sheet) 
{
    CellStyle style = sheet.getWorkbook().createCellStyle();
    style.setDataFormat((short)BuiltinFormats.getBuiltinFormat("d-mmm"));
 
    sheet.createRow(0).createCell(0).setCellValue("Date");
    sheet.createRow(1).createCell(0).setCellFormula("TODAY()+29");
    sheet.createRow(2).createCell(0).setCellFormula("A2+1");
    sheet.createRow(3).createCell(0).setCellFormula("A3+1");
 
    for(int rownum = 1; rownum <= 3; rownum++) sheet.getRow(rownum).getCell(0).setCellStyle(style);
 
    SheetConditionalFormatting sheetCF = sheet.getSheetConditionalFormatting();
 
    // Condition 1: Formula Is   =A2=A1   (White Font)
    ConditionalFormattingRule rule1 = sheetCF.createConditionalFormattingRule("AND(A2-TODAY()>=0,A2-TODAY()<=30)");
    FontFormatting font = rule1.createFontFormatting();
    font.setFontStyle(false, true);
    font.setFontColorIndex(IndexedColors.BLUE.index);
 
    CellRangeAddress[] regions = {
            CellRangeAddress.valueOf("A2:A4")
    };
 
    sheetCF.addConditionalFormatting(regions, rule1);
 
    sheet.getRow(0).createCell(1).setCellValue("Dates within the next 30 days are highlighted");
}
poi-demo-formatting-4

I am ending this apache poi tutorial here to keep the post within a limit.

7. Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned to read excel, write excel, set and evaluate formula cells, and format the cells with color codings using the Apache POI library.

Happy Learning !!

Source Code on Github

Details
Written by  
Last Updated on 30 May 2019   |   Print  Email

In this tutorial, I’d love to share with you guys some examples of writing data to Excel files using the Apache POI library. If today is the first day you get to know Apache POI and you haven’t written any code snippet to read/write Excel files yet, I recommend you to read the sections 1 and 2 in the tutorial How to Read Excel Files in Java using Apache POI to understand the fundamentals of Apache POI.

Or if you are a kind of person who likes getting your hands-dirty first, let jump directly into the following examples.

 

1. Apache POI API Basics for Writing Excel Files

The fundamental interfaces include Workbook, Sheet, Row and Cell. For basic formatting, use the CellStyle and Font interfaces. Concrete implementing classes include:

  • Excel 2003: HSSFWorkbook, HSSFSheet, HSSFRow, HSSFCell, etc.
  • Excel 2007: XSSFWorkbook, XSSFSheet, XSSFRow, XSSFCell, etc.

But I recommend using the common interfaces for greater flexibility with both Excel formats 2003 (XLS) and 2007(XLSX).

Here are the basic steps for writing an Excel file:

  1. Create a Workbook.
  2. Create a Sheet.
  3. Repeat the following steps until all data is processed:
    1. Create a Row.
    2. Create Cellsin a Row. Apply formatting using CellStyle.
  4. Write to an OutputStream.
  5. Close the output stream.

Now, let’s see some examples that demonstrate writing a list of books to an Excel file.

 

2. A Simple Example to create an Excel file in Java

The following code snippet is a very simple program that demonstrates writing a list of books to an Excel file in the simplest and dirty form:

package net.codejava.excel;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;

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;

/**
 * A very simple program that writes some data to an Excel file
 * using the Apache POI library.
 * @author www.codejava.net
 *
 */
public class SimpleExcelWriterExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
		XSSFWorkbook workbook = new XSSFWorkbook();
		XSSFSheet sheet = workbook.createSheet("Java Books");
		
		Object[][] bookData = {
				{"Head First Java", "Kathy Serria", 79},
				{"Effective Java", "Joshua Bloch", 36},
				{"Clean Code", "Robert martin", 42},
				{"Thinking in Java", "Bruce Eckel", 35},
		};

		int rowCount = 0;
		
		for (Object[] aBook : bookData) {
			Row row = sheet.createRow(++rowCount);
			
			int columnCount = 0;
			
			for (Object field : aBook) {
				Cell cell = row.createCell(++columnCount);
				if (field instanceof String) {
					cell.setCellValue((String) field);
				} else if (field instanceof Integer) {
					cell.setCellValue((Integer) field);
				}
			}
			
		}
		
		
		try (FileOutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream("JavaBooks.xlsx")) {
			workbook.write(outputStream);
		}
	}

}

This program creates an Excel 2007 document which looks like the following screenshot (File: JavaBooks.xlsx):

Output Excel File

 

3. A More Object-Oriented Example to create an Excel file in Java

The following code snippets demonstrate a nicer program that focuses on OOP approach. That makes the program more flexible and easy to extend or upgrade in the future.

  • Create the model class (Book.java):
    package net.codejava.excel;
    
    public class Book {
    	private String title;
    	private String author;
    	private float price;
    
    	public Book() {
    	}
    
    	public Book(String title, String author, double price) {
    		this.title = title;
    		this.author = author;
    		this.price = price;
    	}
    
    	// getters and setters
    }
  • The method that writes a list of books to an Excel file (in 2003 format):
    public void writeExcel(List<Book> listBook, String excelFilePath) throws IOException {
    	Workbook workbook = new HSSFWorkbook();
    	Sheet sheet = workbook.createSheet();
    
    	int rowCount = 0;
    
    	for (Book aBook : listBook) {
    		Row row = sheet.createRow(++rowCount);
    		writeBook(aBook, row);
    	}
    
    	try (FileOutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream(excelFilePath)) {
    		workbook.write(outputStream);
    	}
    }
  • The method that writes information of a book to cells:
    private void writeBook(Book aBook, Row row) {
    	Cell cell = row.createCell(1);
    	cell.setCellValue(aBook.getTitle());
    
    	cell = row.createCell(2);
    	cell.setCellValue(aBook.getAuthor());
    
    	cell = row.createCell(3);
    	cell.setCellValue(aBook.getPrice());
    }
  • The following method creates some dummy data (a list of books):
    private List<Book> getListBook() {
    	Book book1 = new Book("Head First Java", "Kathy Serria", 79);
    	Book book2 = new Book("Effective Java", "Joshua Bloch", 36);
    	Book book3 = new Book("Clean Code", "Robert Martin", 42);
    	Book book4 = new Book("Thinking in Java", "Bruce Eckel", 35);
    
    	List<Book> listBook = Arrays.asList(book1, book2, book3, book4);
    
    	return listBook;
    }
  • And the following code snippet is for testing:
    NiceExcelWriterExample excelWriter = new NiceExcelWriterExample();
    
    List<Book> listBook = excelWriter.getListBook();
    String excelFilePath = "NiceJavaBooks.xls";
    
    excelWriter.writeExcel(listBook, excelFilePath);

 

4. Formatting Cells of the Excel file

Of course you may need to format the Excel file to make it looks nicely and professionally. Formatting is diversity and quite complex so in this introductory tutorial, I just show you how to format the basics like setting font style. Here are the steps:

  • Create a CellStyle object what holds formatting information:
    CellStyle cellStyle = sheet.getWorkbook().createCellStyle();
  • Invoke the appropriate setters to apply the formatting you want. For example:
    cellStyle.setAlignment(CellStyle.ALIGN_CENTER);
    cellStyle.setFont(font);
    cellStyle.setWrapText(true);

For example, the following method writes a header row for the document with font style bold and size is 16:

private void createHeaderRow(Sheet sheet) {

	CellStyle cellStyle = sheet.getWorkbook().createCellStyle();
	Font font = sheet.getWorkbook().createFont();
	font.setBold(true);
	font.setFontHeightInPoints((short) 16);
	cellStyle.setFont(font);

	Row row = sheet.createRow(0);
	Cell cellTitle = row.createCell(1);

	cellTitle.setCellStyle(cellStyle);
	cellTitle.setCellValue("Title");

	Cell cellAuthor = row.createCell(2);
	cellAuthor.setCellStyle(cellStyle);
	cellAuthor.setCellValue("Author");

	Cell cellPrice = row.createCell(3);
	cellPrice.setCellStyle(cellStyle);
	cellPrice.setCellValue("Price");
}

You can see the complete program (FormattedExcelWriterExample.java) which can be found in the source code attached to this article.

 

5. Writing both Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 formats in Java

For better flexibility (supporting both common Excel formats), I recommend writing a factory method that either returns a HSSFWorkbook or XSSFWorkbook, depending on the extension of the file (.xls or .xlsx). Here’s the method:

private Workbook getWorkbook(String excelFilePath)
		throws IOException {
	Workbook workbook = null;

	if (excelFilePath.endsWith("xlsx")) {
		workbook = new XSSFWorkbook();
	} else if (excelFilePath.endsWith("xls")) {
		workbook = new HSSFWorkbook();
	} else {
		throw new IllegalArgumentException("The specified file is not Excel file");
	}

	return workbook;
}

You can see the complete program (FlexibleExcelWriterExample.java) which can be found in the source code attached to this article.

That’s how to read Excel files in Java programmatically. To learn more in-depth about Java programming, this Java software developers course would be good choice.

Related Java Excel Tutorials:

  • How to Read Excel Files in Java using Apache POI
  • Java Example to Read Password-protected Excel Files Using Apache POI
  • Java Example to Update Existing Excel Files Using Apache POI
  • Working with Formula Cells in Excel using Apache POI

 

References

  • Apache POI — the Java API for Microsoft Documents
  • POI API Documentation (Javadocs)
  • Apache POI Quick Guide
  • Apache POI HOWTO

 

About the Author:

Nam Ha Minh is certified Java programmer (SCJP and SCWCD). He started programming with Java in the time of Java 1.4 and has been falling in love with Java since then. Make friend with him on Facebook and watch his Java videos you YouTube.

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Рассказывает автор блога javarevisited.blogspot.ru


Из этой статьи вы сможете узнать о записи и чтении данных из Excel файлов в Java (будет рассмотрен как XLS, так и XLSX формат). Мы будем использовать библиотеку Apache POI и сосредоточимся на работе с типами String и Date, работа с последним происходит достаточно хитро. Напомню, что работу с числами мы уже рассмотрели в другой статье.

Библиотеку poi-XX.jar вы можете использовать для всех старых (xls, doc, ppt) файлов Microsoft Office, для новых (xlsx, docx, pptx) вам понадобится poi-ooxml-XX.jar. Очень важно понимать, что к чему относится, т.к. используемые классы тоже разные — для старых расширений это HSSFWorkbook, а для новых — XSSFWorkbook.

Подготовка: загрузка библиотек и зависимостей

Конечно, существует достаточно много открытых библиотек, которые позволяют работать с Excel файлами в Java, например, JXL, но мы будем использовать имеющую самый обширный API и самую популярную — Apache POI. Чтобы её использовать, вам нужно скачать jar файлы и добавить их через Eclipse вручную, или вы можете предоставить это Maven.

Во втором случае вам нужно просто добавить следующие две зависимости:

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
        <artifactId>poi</artifactId>
        <version>3.12</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
        <artifactId>poi-ooxml</artifactId>
        <version>3.12</version>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>

Самое удобное в Maven — что он загрузит не только указанные poi.jar и poi-ooxml.jar, но и все jar файлы, которые используются внутри, то есть xmlbeans-2.6.0.jar, stax-api-1.0.1.jar, poi-ooxml-schemas-3.12.jar и commons-codec-1.9.jar.

Если вы будете добавлять библиотеки вручную — не забудьте о вышеназванных файлах. Скачать всё можно отсюда. Помните — если вы загрузите только poi-XX.jar, то ваш код скомпилируется без ошибок, но потом упадёт с java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/xmlbeans/XmlObject, так как внутри будет вызываться xmlbeans.jar.

Запись

В этом примере мы запишем в xls файл следующие данные: в первую ячейку — строку с именем, а во вторую — дату рождения. Вот пошаговая инструкция:

  • Создаём объект HSSFWorkBook;
  • Создаём лист, используя на объекте, созданном в предыдущем шаге, createSheet();
  • Создаём на листе строку, используя createRow();
  • Создаём в строке ячейку — createCell();
  • Задаём значение ячейки через setCellValue();
  • Записываем workbook в File через FileOutputStream;
  • Закрываем workbook, вызывая close().

Для записи строк или чисел этого вполне достаточно, но чтобы записать дату, нам понадобится сделать ещё кое-что:

  • Создать DateFormat;
  • Создать CellStyle;
  • Записать DateFormat в CellStyle;
  • Записать CellStyle в ячейку;
  • Теперь в эту ячейку можно записать объект Date через всё тот же setCellValue;
  • Чтобы дата поместилась в ячейку, нам нужно добавить столбцу свойство автоматически менять размер: sheet.autoSizeColumn(1).

Всё вместе это будет выглядеть так:

@SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
    public static void writeIntoExcel(String file) throws FileNotFoundException, IOException{
        Workbook book = new HSSFWorkbook();
        Sheet sheet = book.createSheet("Birthdays");

        // Нумерация начинается с нуля
        Row row = sheet.createRow(0); 
        
        // Мы запишем имя и дату в два столбца
        // имя будет String, а дата рождения --- Date,
        // формата dd.mm.yyyy
        Cell name = row.createCell(0);
        name.setCellValue("John");
        
        Cell birthdate = row.createCell(1);
        
        DataFormat format = book.createDataFormat();
        CellStyle dateStyle = book.createCellStyle();
        dateStyle.setDataFormat(format.getFormat("dd.mm.yyyy"));
        birthdate.setCellStyle(dateStyle);
        
 
        // Нумерация лет начинается с 1900-го
        birthdate.setCellValue(new Date(110, 10, 10));
        
        // Меняем размер столбца
        sheet.autoSizeColumn(1);
        
        // Записываем всё в файл
        book.write(new FileOutputStream(file));
        book.close();
    }

Чтение

Теперь мы считаем из только что созданного файла то, что мы туда записали.

  • Для начала создадим HSSFWorkBook, передав в конструктор FileInputStream;
  • Получаем лист, передавая в getSheet() его номер или название;
  • Получаем строку, используя getRow();
  • Получаем ячейку, используя getCell();
  • Узнаём тип ячейки, используя на ней getCellType();
  • В зависимости от типа ячейки, читаем её значения, используя getStringCellValue(), getNumericCellValue() или getDateCellValue();
  • Закрываем workbook используя close().

Напомню, что дату Excel хранит как числа, т.е. тип ячейки всё равно будет CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC.

В виде кода это будет выглядеть следующим образом:

public static void readFromExcel(String file) throws IOException{
        HSSFWorkbook myExcelBook = new HSSFWorkbook(new FileInputStream(file));
        HSSFSheet myExcelSheet = myExcelBook.getSheet("Birthdays");
        HSSFRow row = myExcelSheet.getRow(0);
        
        if(row.getCell(0).getCellType() == HSSFCell.CELL_TYPE_STRING){
            String name = row.getCell(0).getStringCellValue();
            System.out.println("name : " + name);
        }
        
        if(row.getCell(1).getCellType() == HSSFCell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC){
            Date birthdate = row.getCell(1).getDateCellValue();
            System.out.println("birthdate :" + birthdate);
        }
        
        myExcelBook.close();
        
    }

В заключение

Как уже упомналось выше, чтение из xlsx файлов ничем принципиально не отличается — нужно только вместо HSSFWorkBook, HSSFSheet, HSSFRow (и прочих) из poi-XX.jar использовать XSSFWorkBook, XSSFSheet, XSSFRow из poi-ooxml-XX.jar. Это всё, что вам нужно знать для чтения и записи в файлы Excel. Разумеется, с помощью библиотеки Apache POI вы можете сделать гораздо больше, но эта статья должна помочь вам быстрее в ней освоиться.

Перевод статьи «How to Read Write Excel file in Java — POI Example»

Apache POI is a powerful Java library to work with different Microsoft Office file formats such as Excel, Power point, Visio, MS Word etc. The name POI was originally an acronym for Poor Obfuscation Implementation, referring humorously to the fact that the file formats seemed to be deliberately obfuscated, but poorly, since they were successfully reverse-engineered. In this tutorial we will use Apache POI library to perform different functions on Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Let’s get started. 

Tools & Technologies:

  1. Java JDK 1.5 or above
  2. Apache POI library v3.8 or above (download)
  3. Eclipse 3.2 above (optional)

1. Add Apache POI dependency

Make sure to include apache poi jar file to your project. If your project uses Maven as dependency management, add following in your Pom.xml file.

<dependency> <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId> <artifactId>poi</artifactId> <version>3.8</version> </dependency>

Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

If you are not using Maven then you can directly add required JAR files in your classpath.

  1. Download poi-2.5.1.jar(or in this case 3.8) jar file.
  2. Include this file in your projects class path.
  3. Create new java project in eclipse with auto generated main function.

2. Read Excel File

To read an excel file, Apache POI provides certain easy-to-use APIs. In below sample code we use different classes from POI library to read content of cell from excel file. This is for quick reference.

import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFSheet; import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook; //.. FileInputStream file = new FileInputStream(new File("C:\test.xls")); //Get the workbook instance for XLS file HSSFWorkbook workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(file); //Get first sheet from the workbook HSSFSheet sheet = workbook.getSheetAt(0); //Get iterator to all the rows in current sheet Iterator<Row> rowIterator = sheet.iterator(); //Get iterator to all cells of current row Iterator<Cell> cellIterator = row.cellIterator();

Code language: Java (java)

Notice how each class in POI library starts with HSSF prefix! e.g. HSSFWorkbook, HSSFSheet etc. HSSF stands for Horrible SpreadSheet Format! I’m not kidding.. It really is. Similar to HSSF, POI has different prefix for other file formats too:

  1. HSSF (Horrible SpreadSheet Format) – reads and writes Microsoft Excel (XLS) format files.
  2. XSSF (XML SpreadSheet Format) – reads and writes Office Open XML (XLSX) format files.
  3. HPSF (Horrible Property Set Format) – reads “Document Summary” information from Microsoft Office files.
  4. HWPF (Horrible Word Processor Format) – aims to read and write Microsoft Word 97 (DOC) format files.
  5. HSLF (Horrible Slide Layout Format) – a pure Java implementation for Microsoft PowerPoint files.
  6. HDGF (Horrible DiaGram Format) – an initial pure Java implementation for Microsoft Visio binary files.
  7. HPBF (Horrible PuBlisher Format) – a pure Java implementation for Microsoft Publisher files.
  8. HSMF (Horrible Stupid Mail Format) – a pure Java implementation for Microsoft Outlook MSG files
  9. DDF (Dreadful Drawing Format) – a package for decoding the Microsoft Office Drawing format.

Working with .xlsx files

The classes we used in above code snippet, HSSFWorkbook and HSSFSheet works for .xls format. In order to work with newer xls format viz .xlsx, you need to see newer POI classes like:

import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFSheet; import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFSheet; //.. FileInputStream file = new FileInputStream(new File("C:\test.xlsx")); //Get the workbook instance for XLS file XSSFWorkbook workbook = new XSSFWorkbook (file); //Get first sheet from the workbook XSSFSheet sheet = workbook.getSheetAt(0); //Get iterator to all the rows in current sheet Iterator<Row> rowIterator = sheet.iterator(); //Get iterator to all cells of current row Iterator<Cell> cellIterator = row.cellIterator();

Code language: Java (java)

Use XSSFWorkbook and XSSFSheet class in all of the below examples in order to make them work with .xlsx files. Consider a sample excel file: test.xls

java read excel file

We will read above xls file using Apache POI and prints the data.

try { FileInputStream file = new FileInputStream(new File("C:\test.xls")); //Get the workbook instance for XLS file HSSFWorkbook workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(file); //Get first sheet from the workbook HSSFSheet sheet = workbook.getSheetAt(0); //Iterate through each rows from first sheet Iterator < Row > rowIterator = sheet.iterator(); while (rowIterator.hasNext()) { Row row = rowIterator.next(); //For each row, iterate through each columns Iterator < Cell > cellIterator = row.cellIterator(); while (cellIterator.hasNext()) { Cell cell = cellIterator.next(); switch (cell.getCellType()) { case Cell.CELL_TYPE_BOOLEAN: System.out.print(cell.getBooleanCellValue() + "tt"); break; case Cell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC: System.out.print(cell.getNumericCellValue() + "tt"); break; case Cell.CELL_TYPE_STRING: System.out.print(cell.getStringCellValue() + "tt"); break; } } System.out.println(""); } file.close(); FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(new File("C:\test.xls")); workbook.write(out); out.close(); } catch (FileNotFoundException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); }

Code language: Java (java)

The above code is self explanatory. It read the sheet from workbook and iterate through each row and cell to print its values. Just note how we use different methods like getBooleanCellValuegetNumericCellValue etc to read cell value. Before reading a cell content, we need to first determine its type using method cell.getCellType() and then call appropriate method to read content. Output:

Emp Id Name Salary 1.0 John 2000000.0 2.0 Dean 420000.0 3.0 Sam 280000.0 4.0 Cass 6000000.0

Code language: CSS (css)

3. Create New Excel File

Let us create a new excel file and write data in it. Following is the API which we will use for this purpose.

import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFSheet; import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook; //.. HSSFWorkbook workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(); HSSFSheet sheet = workbook.createSheet("Sample sheet"); //Create a new row in current sheet Row row = sheet.createRow(0); //Create a new cell in current row Cell cell = row.createCell(0); //Set value to new value cell.setCellValue("Blahblah");

Code language: Java (java)

Below is the complete code that writes a new excel with dummy data:

HSSFWorkbook workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(); HSSFSheet sheet = workbook.createSheet("Sample sheet"); Map < String, Object[] > data = new HashMap < String, Object[] > (); data.put("1", new Object[] { "Emp No.", "Name", "Salary" }); data.put("2", new Object[] { 1 d, "John", 1500000 d }); data.put("3", new Object[] { 2 d, "Sam", 800000 d }); data.put("4", new Object[] { 3 d, "Dean", 700000 d }); Set < String > keyset = data.keySet(); int rownum = 0; for (String key: keyset) { Row row = sheet.createRow(rownum++); Object[] objArr = data.get(key); int cellnum = 0; for (Object obj: objArr) { Cell cell = row.createCell(cellnum++); if (obj instanceof Date) cell.setCellValue((Date) obj); else if (obj instanceof Boolean) cell.setCellValue((Boolean) obj); else if (obj instanceof String) cell.setCellValue((String) obj); else if (obj instanceof Double) cell.setCellValue((Double) obj); } } try { FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(new File("C:\new.xls")); workbook.write(out); out.close(); System.out.println("Excel written successfully.."); } catch (FileNotFoundException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); }

Code language: Java (java)

Output:

new.xls

java-write-excel file

4. Update Existing Excel File

Updating an existing excel file is straight forward. Open the excel using different API that we discussed above and set the cell’s value. One thing we need to note here is that we can update the excel file only when we close it first. 

update.xls

java-update-excel-before

Following Java code read the above excel file and doubles the salary of each employee:

try { FileInputStream file = new FileInputStream(new File("C:\update.xls")); HSSFWorkbook workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(file); HSSFSheet sheet = workbook.getSheetAt(0); Cell cell = null; //Update the value of cell cell = sheet.getRow(1).getCell(2); cell.setCellValue(cell.getNumericCellValue() * 2); cell = sheet.getRow(2).getCell(2); cell.setCellValue(cell.getNumericCellValue() * 2); cell = sheet.getRow(3).getCell(2); cell.setCellValue(cell.getNumericCellValue() * 2); file.close(); FileOutputStream outFile = new FileOutputStream(new File("C:\update.xls")); workbook.write(outFile); outFile.close(); } catch (FileNotFoundException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); }

Code language: Java (java)

Steps to update excel file will be:

  1. Open excel file in input mode (inputstream)
  2. Use POI API and read the excel content
  3. Update cell’s value using different setCellValue methods.
  4. Close the excel input file (inputstream)
  5. Open same excel file in output mode (outputstream)
  6. Write content of updated workbook in output file
  7. Close output excel file

Output:

update.xls

java-update-excel-after

5. Adding Formulas

Apache POI provides API to add excel formulas to cell programmatically. Following method that comes handy for this:

cell.setCellFormula("someformula")

Code language: Java (java)

For example:

cell.setCellFormula("A2*B2*C5") //or cell.setCellFormula("SUM(A1:A7)")

Code language: Java (java)

Note: Formula string should not start with equal sign (=) Thus, following is incorrect way of adding formula:

cell.setCellFormula("=A2*B2*C5") //Ops! Won't work

Code language: Java (java)

The above code will throw:

org.apache.poi.ss.formula.FormulaParseException: The specified formula '=A2*B2*C5' starts with an equals sign which is not allowed.

Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Following Java code creates a new excel sheet which calculates Simple Interest. It defines Principal amount, Rate of Interest and Tenure. We add an excel formula to calculate interest.

HSSFWorkbook workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(); HSSFSheet sheet = workbook.createSheet("Calculate Simple Interest"); Row header = sheet.createRow(0); header.createCell(0).setCellValue("Pricipal Amount (P)"); header.createCell(1).setCellValue("Rate of Interest (r)"); header.createCell(2).setCellValue("Tenure (t)"); header.createCell(3).setCellValue("Interest (P r t)"); Row dataRow = sheet.createRow(1); dataRow.createCell(0).setCellValue(14500 d); dataRow.createCell(1).setCellValue(9.25); dataRow.createCell(2).setCellValue(3 d); dataRow.createCell(3).setCellFormula("A2*B2*C2"); try { FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(new File("C:\formula.xls")); workbook.write(out); out.close(); System.out.println("Excel written successfully.."); } catch (FileNotFoundException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); }

Code language: Java (java)

Output:

formula.xls

java-excel-add-formula

Triggering Existing Excel Formulas

In certain cases your excel file might have formula defined and you may want to trigger those formulas since you updated it using POI. Following code snippet will do the trick.

FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("/somepath/test.xls"); Workbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook(fis); //or new XSSFWorkbook("C:\test.xls") FormulaEvaluator evaluator = wb.getCreationHelper().createFormulaEvaluator(); for (int sheetNum = 0; sheetNum < wb.getNumberOfSheets(); sheetNum++) { Sheet sheet = wb.getSheetAt(sheetNum); for (Row r: sheet) { for (Cell c: r) { if (c.getCellType() == Cell.CELL_TYPE_FORMULA) { evaluator.evaluateFormulaCell(c); } } } }

Code language: Java (java)

We use FormulaEvaluator class to evaluate formula defined in each of the cell.

6. Adding Styles to Cell

Adding style to a cell is also piece of cake. Check following example which creates two new cell one with bold font and another with italic and add text to it.

HSSFWorkbook workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(); HSSFSheet sheet = workbook.createSheet("Style example"); HSSFFont font = workbook.createFont(); font.setBoldweight(HSSFFont.BOLDWEIGHT_BOLD); HSSFCellStyle style = workbook.createCellStyle(); style.setFont(font); Row row = sheet.createRow(0); Cell cell = row.createCell(0); cell.setCellValue("This is bold"); cell.setCellStyle(style); font = workbook.createFont(); font.setItalic(true); style = workbook.createCellStyle(); style.setFont(font); row = sheet.createRow(1); cell = row.createCell(0); cell.setCellValue("This is italic"); cell.setCellStyle(style); try { FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(new File("C:\style.xls")); workbook.write(out); out.close(); System.out.println("Excel written successfully.."); } catch (FileNotFoundException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); }

Code language: Java (java)

Output:

style.xls

java-excel-cell-style

6.1 Add Background Color to the cell

Changing background color of the cell is a bit tricky. Ideally we assume setting background color will have some API like setFillBackgroundColor, but surprisingly to set background color of a cell, we have to set the foreground color :D. See below API.

cellStyle.setFillForegroundColor(HSSFColor.GREY_25_PERCENT.index);

Code language: Java (java)

So use setFillForegroundColor method to set the background color of given cell. I hope this article is useful.

import java.io.FileOutputStream;

import java.io.IOException;

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 GFG {

    public static void main(String[] args)

    {

        XSSFWorkbook workbook = new XSSFWorkbook();

        XSSFSheet sheet

            = workbook.createSheet("student Details");

        Map<String, Object[]> data

            = new TreeMap<String, Object[]>();

        data.put("1",

                 new Object[] { "ID", "NAME", "LASTNAME" });

        data.put("2",

                 new Object[] { 1, "Pankaj", "Kumar" });

        data.put("3",

                 new Object[] { 2, "Prakashni", "Yadav" });

        data.put("4", new Object[] { 3, "Ayan", "Mondal" });

        data.put("5", new Object[] { 4, "Virat", "kohli" });

        Set<String> keyset = data.keySet();

        int rownum = 0;

        for (String key : keyset) {

            Row row = sheet.createRow(rownum++);

            Object[] objArr = data.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 Integer)

                    cell.setCellValue((Integer)obj);

            }

        }

        try {

            FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(

                new File("gfgcontribute.xlsx"));

            workbook.write(out);

            out.close();

            System.out.println(

                "gfgcontribute.xlsx written successfully on disk.");

        }

        catch (Exception e) {

            e.printStackTrace();

        }

    }

}

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