How can I configure an Excel spreadsheet as a javax.sql.DataSource?

Question

I have a Spring Boot 1.3.0 (Java 8) application that needs to use Excel as a data source. (POI and JXL do not work due to type of Excel file.) The application needs to run i

Answer 1

You need a ODBC bridge to read from Excel. P Lease take a look at the following sample: http://www.java2s.com/Tutorial/Java/0340__Database/UseJDBCODBCbridgetoreadfromExcel.htm

Answer 2

Use Apache POI if you want to use Excel as your datasource.

Here is an example of how you can use it

/**
 * This example shows how to use the event API for reading a file.
 */
public class EventExample
        implements HSSFListener
{
    private SSTRecord sstrec;

    /**
     * This method listens for incoming records and handles them as required.
     * @param record    The record that was found while reading.
     */
    public void processRecord(Record record)
    {
        switch (record.getSid())
        {
            // the BOFRecord can represent either the beginning of a sheet or the workbook
            case BOFRecord.sid:
                BOFRecord bof = (BOFRecord) record;
                if (bof.getType() == bof.TYPE_WORKBOOK)
                {
                    System.out.println("Encountered workbook");
                    // assigned to the class level member
                } else if (bof.getType() == bof.TYPE_WORKSHEET)
                {
                    System.out.println("Encountered sheet reference");
                }
                break;
            case BoundSheetRecord.sid:
                BoundSheetRecord bsr = (BoundSheetRecord) record;
                System.out.println("New sheet named: " + bsr.getSheetname());
                break;
            case RowRecord.sid:
                RowRecord rowrec = (RowRecord) record;
                System.out.println("Row found, first column at "
                        + rowrec.getFirstCol() + " last column at " + rowrec.getLastCol());
                break;
            case NumberRecord.sid:
                NumberRecord numrec = (NumberRecord) record;
                System.out.println("Cell found with value " + numrec.getValue()
                        + " at row " + numrec.getRow() + " and column " + numrec.getColumn());
                break;
                // SSTRecords store a array of unique strings used in Excel.
            case SSTRecord.sid:
                sstrec = (SSTRecord) record;
                for (int k = 0; k < sstrec.getNumUniqueStrings(); k++)
                {
                    System.out.println("String table value " + k + " = " + sstrec.getString(k));
                }
                break;
            case LabelSSTRecord.sid:
                LabelSSTRecord lrec = (LabelSSTRecord) record;
                System.out.println("String cell found with value "
                        + sstrec.getString(lrec.getSSTIndex()));
                break;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Read an excel file and spit out what we find.
     *
     * @param args      Expect one argument that is the file to read.
     * @throws IOException  When there is an error processing the file.
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
    {
        // create a new file input stream with the input file specified
        // at the command line
        FileInputStream fin = new FileInputStream(args[0]);
        // create a new org.apache.poi.poifs.filesystem.Filesystem
        POIFSFileSystem poifs = new POIFSFileSystem(fin);
        // get the Workbook (excel part) stream in a InputStream
        InputStream din = poifs.createDocumentInputStream("Workbook");
        // construct out HSSFRequest object
        HSSFRequest req = new HSSFRequest();
        // lazy listen for ALL records with the listener shown above
        req.addListenerForAllRecords(new EventExample());
        // create our event factory
        HSSFEventFactory factory = new HSSFEventFactory();
        // process our events based on the document input stream
        factory.processEvents(req, din);
        // once all the events are processed close our file input stream
        fin.close();
        // and our document input stream (don't want to leak these!)
        din.close();
        System.out.println("done.");
    }
}

Taken from: https://poi.apache.org/spreadsheet/how-to.html

While this may not answer your question of how to use it as a javax.sql.DataSource, this would be a well supported way of doing it.

If you do want to use it via JDBC then look into this http://www.jguru.com/faq/view.jsp?EID=32876.

Since Excel comes with an ODBC driver, we'll use the JDBC-ODBC bridge driver that comes packaged with Sun's JDK to connect to our spreadsheet.

sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver has been removed since Java 8, so you will have to use other alternatives for that or use Java 7. I am not aware of any good Jdbc Obdc bridge in Java 8.

Answer 3

For Excel file c:/temp/test1.xlsx and 'Table' abc. You have to write driver name exactly in this form!

For Java8 you need to copy all sun package classes from jre7 to new jar file plus JdbcOdbc.dll from jre7 bin folder in your project folder.

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.Statement;

public class JDBCExcelConnection {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Connection connection = null;
        Statement statement = null;
        ResultSet resultSet = null;

        try {
            Class.forName("sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver");
            connection = DriverManager
                            .getConnection("jdbc:odbc:Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb)};DBQ=c:\\Temp\\test1.xlsx;readOnly=false");
            statement = connection.createStatement();
            resultSet = statement.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM [abc$]");
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
            System.err.println("ClassNotFoundException by driver load - " + e);
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            System.err.println("SQLException by connect - " + e);
        } finally {
            if (connection != null) {
                try {
                    connection.close();
                } catch (Exception e) {
                }
            }
            if (statement != null) {
                try {
                    statement.close();
                } catch (Exception e) {
                }
            }
            if (resultSet != null) {
                try {
                    resultSet.close();
                } catch (Exception e) {
                }
            }
        }
    }
}