How do I get the (Java Apache POI HSSF) Background Color for a given cell?

Question

I have an existing excel spreadsheet, which I am accesssing and reading values from, I am using Apache POI HSSF.

It is initialised like this:

HSSFSheet sheet;
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(this.file);
POIFSFileSystem fs = new POIFSFileSystem(fis);
HSSFWorkbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook(fs);
this.sheet = wb.getSheet(exsheet);

I am iterating over all the cells that exist in the sheet, which makes a cell object:

HSSFCell cell = (HSSFCell) cells.next();

Please can someone familiar with the framework explain how to create an (HSSFColor) object to represent the backround color of each cell in the sheet.

Many thanks

EDIT, UPDATE

To be clear what I want to know is: how do I create/get an HSSFColor object for the background color of an existing cell?

cell.getCellStyle().getFillBackgroundColor(); 

This code only returns a short number, not an HSSFColor object. Thanks for the answers so far.

Answer 1

There are static color classes provided by the HSSFCell class, listed here:

http://poi.apache.org/apidocs/org/apache/poi/hssf/util/HSSFColor.html

If you want to create your own custom colors, you will need to create and modify a custom palette. Apache provides a very clear guide to this as well:

http://poi.apache.org/spreadsheet/quick-guide.html#CustomColors