How to read and write excel file

Question

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

Answer 1

First add all these jar files in your project class path:

1. poi-scratchpad-3.7-20101029
2. poi-3.2-FINAL-20081019
3. poi-3.7-20101029
4. poi-examples-3.7-20101029
5. poi-ooxml-3.7-20101029
6. poi-ooxml-schemas-3.7-20101029
7. xmlbeans-2.3.0
8. dom4j-1.6.1

Code for writing in a excel file:

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) 
    {
        //create a row of excelsheet
        Row row = sheet.createRow(rownum++);

        //get object array of prerticuler key
        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("C:\\Documents and Settings\\admin\\Desktop\\imp data\\howtodoinjava_demo.xlsx"));
        workbook.write(out);
        out.close();
        System.out.println("howtodoinjava_demo.xlsx written successfully on disk.");
    } 
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

Code for reading from excel file

/*
* To change this template, choose Tools | Templates
* and open the template in the editor.
*/

public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
        FileInputStream file = new FileInputStream(new File("C:\\Documents and Settings\\admin\\Desktop\\imp data\\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();
    }
}

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

Apache POI can do this for you. Specifically the HSSF module. The quick guide is most useful. Here's how to do what you want - specifically create a sheet and write it out.

Workbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook();
//Workbook wb = new XSSFWorkbook();
CreationHelper createHelper = wb.getCreationHelper();
Sheet sheet = wb.createSheet("new sheet");

// Create a row and put some cells in it. Rows are 0 based.
Row row = sheet.createRow((short)0);
// Create a cell and put a value in it.
Cell cell = row.createCell(0);
cell.setCellValue(1);

// Or do it on one line.
row.createCell(1).setCellValue(1.2);
row.createCell(2).setCellValue(
createHelper.createRichTextString("This is a string"));
row.createCell(3).setCellValue(true);

// Write the output to a file
FileOutputStream fileOut = new FileOutputStream("workbook.xls");
wb.write(fileOut);
fileOut.close();

Answer 4

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();
 }
}