How can I read .xlsx and .xls files in Java?

Question

hi i want to read xlsx file or xls file what ever it is. can XSSF support xls file ? or do i need to write the separate code for both kind of files ?

Answer 1

Yes, you can use Apache POI to read and write xlsx and xls files.

Answer 2

If you want your code to work for both, you'll have to use the org.apache.poi.ss package. This package has been created to unify XSSF and HSSF.

Answer 3

For one of my projects I have created a basic utility that uses Apache POI and OpenCSV and can read both xlsx, xls and csv files.

Given a converter it can convert rows to objects, like this:

RowConverter<Country> converter = (row) -> new Country(row[0], row[1]);

ExcelReader<Country> reader = ExcelReader.builder(Country.class)
     .converter(converter)
     .withHeader()
     .csvDelimiter(';')
     .sheets(1)
     .build();

List<Country> list;
list = reader.read("CountryCodes.xlsx");
list = reader.read("CountryCodes.xls");
list = reader.read("CountryCodes.csv");

You may find the project on github.