Password Protected Excel File

Question

I have an excel spreadsheet that is password-protected. I need to open this spreadsheet and read the data from it. I've been attempting to use the POI API to no avail. A Java solution would be preferred but any ideas would be helpful.

Edit: Yes, I have the password. The file is password protected in excel; a password must be entered to view the spreadsheet.

Edit2: I am unable to open it with POI with the password, I am looking for an alternate solution.

Answer 1

POI should be able to open both protected xls files (using org.apache.poi.hssf.record.crypt) and protected xlsx files (using org.apache.poi.poifs.crypt). Have you tried these?

If you're using HSSF (for a xls file), you need to set the password before opening the file. You do this with a call to:

 org.apache.poi.hssf.record.crypto.Biff8EncryptionKey.setCurrentUserPassword(password);

After that, HSSF should be able to open your file.

For XSSF, you want something like:

    POIFSFileSystem fs = new POIFSFileSystem(new FileInputStream("protect.xlsx"));
    EncryptionInfo info = new EncryptionInfo(fs);
    Decryptor d = Decryptor.getInstance(info);
    d.verifyPassword(Decryptor.DEFAULT_PASSWORD);
    XSSFWorkbook wb = new XSSFWorkbook(d.getDataStream(fs));

Full details are given on the POI Encryption documentation page

Answer 2

addthe excel file in ODBC Sources (from control panel->Administrative Tools) and then execute the code:

// program to extract data from excel file

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

public class ExtractExcelData {

    public static void main (String[] args) {
        try {
            Class.forName(DRIVER);
            connection = DriverManager.getConnection(URL,userName,password);
        }
        catch (ClassNotFoundException cnfe) {
            System.err.println("unable to load excel  driver");
            return  ;
        }
        catch (SQLException se) {
            System.err.println("cannot connect to excel file");
            return  ;
        }

        try {
            statement = connection.createStatement();
            String select = "SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]";
            resultSet = statement.executeQuery(select);
            metaData = resultSet.getMetaData();

            int count = metaData.getColumnCount();
            while ( resultSet.next() ) {

                String col1 =  resultSet.getString(1) ; 
                String col2 =  resultSet.getString(2) ; 
                String col3 =  resultSet.getString(3) ; 

                System.out.println( col1 ) ;
                System.out.println( col2 ) ;
                System.out.println( col3 ) ;

                System.out.println();
            }
        }
        catch (SQLException se) {
            System.err.println("cannot execute query");
            return ;
        }

        try {
            statement.close();
            resultSet.close();
        }
        catch (SQLException se ) {
            System.err.println("unable to close excel file");
            return  ;
        }
    }

    private static final String userName = "" ;
    private static final String password = "" ;
    private static final String URL = "jdbc:odbc:testexcel" ;
    private static final String DRIVER = "sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver" ;

    private static Connection connection ;
    private static Statement statement ;
    private static ResultSet resultSet ;
    private static ResultSetMetaData metaData ;
}

Answer 3

I tried to set password for excel file from java script, this script will only work on IE and Excel get should installed in the client system.

<script>
function setPasswordToExcel(password,excelFileName,newFileName)
{
   var Excel;
    Excel = new ActiveXObject("Excel.Application"); 
    Excel.Visible = false;
    var obj = Excel.Workbooks.Open(excelFileName);
    obj.Password =password;
    obj.SaveAs(newFileName);
    obj.Close();
    Excel.Close();
    return 1;
}       
 setPasswordToExcel("stephen","C:/test1.xls","C:\\test2.xls");
</script>