Java Excel API - A Java API to read, write and modify Excel spreadsheets

http://www.devx.com/Java/Article/31356

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jexcelapi/

http://www.andykhan.com/jexcelapi/

Java Excel API - A Java API to read, write and modify Excel spreadsheets

This is the home page of Java Excel API - open source Java API which
allows Java developers to read Excel spreadsheets and to generate
Excel spreadsheets dynamically. In addition, it contains a mechanism
which allows java applications to read in a spreadsheet, modify some
cells and write out the new spreadsheet.

This API allows non Windows operating systems to run pure Java
applications which can both process and deliver Excel spreadsheets.
Because it is Java, this API may be invoked from within a servlet,
thus giving access to Excel functionality over internet and intranet
web applications.

Features

# Reads data from Excel 95, 97, 2000 workbooks
# Reads and writes formulas (Excel 97 and later only)
# Generates spreadsheets in Excel 2000 format
# Supports font, number and date formatting
# Supports shading and colouring of cells
# Modifies existing worksheets
# Supports image creation
# Preserves macros on copy
# Customizable logging

Limitations

# JExcelApi does not generate or chart, graph or macro information.
This information is however preserved when spreadsheets are copied
# When adding images to a sheet, only PNG image formats are supported

Getting started

The distribution comes with a number of demo programs which illustrate
how the API may be used.

Reading Spreadsheets

When reading a spreadsheet, the demo programs may be used "as is" to
convert Excel files to CSV and XML formats in a reasonable manner.

java -jar jxl.jar -csv myspreadsheet.xls

To view the spreadsheet as XML, invoke the demo as follows

java -jar jxl.jar -xml myspreadsheet.xls

In order to present the data the demo uses the classes xlrd/CSV.java
and xlrd/XML.java respectively. For more sophisticated processing,
these classes may be used as a starting point. Click here for a
tutorial.

Generating Spreadsheets

The write demo illustrates the functionality accessible within
JExcelApi to generate spreadsheets. The spreadsheet generated by the
demo includes different fonts, number formatting, date formatting,
colours and borders.

To generate the demo spreadsheet, invoke JExcelApi as follows:

java -jar jxl.jar -write myspreadsheet.xls

This will generate the sample spreadsheet called myspreadsheet.xls in
the current working directory. The class used to generate this
spreadheet is jxl/Write.java. This may be used as a starting point for
bespoke processing.

Copying Spreadsheets

JExcelApi may be used to copy and modify a spreadsheet. Included with
the JExcelApi is a spreadsheet called jxlrwtest.xls, which is
hardcoded into the demo program. If this spreadsheet is passed as a
command line argument to the demo, then a copy of this spreadsheet
will be generated, with the second sheet containing modified values.

DO NOT MODIFY THE DEMO SPREADSHEET otherwise the modification demo
will not work.

To run this demo, from the directory containing jxlrwtest.xls type

java -jar jxl.jar -rw jxlrwtest.xls myoutput.xls

This will generate an output spreadsheet called myoutput.xls. The
first sheet (called "original") is unchanged, but the second sheet
(called "modified" has had its cell contents changed, as indicated by
the labels.

The class for the modification demo is jxl/ReadWrite.java.

Requirements

JExcelApi requires Java 2 JDK to run.

When dealing with large spreadsheets, particularly when using the copy
functionality, it is recommended that users allocate sufficient memory
to the JVM using the -Xms and -Xmx options on the java command line.

Installation

JExcelApi comes packaged as a zipped tar file, called something like
jexcelapi_2_0.tar.gz. To unpack on UNIX systems, at the command line
type

gunzip jexcelapi_2_0.tar.gz followed by
tar xf jexcelapi_2_0.tar

On Linux systems this can be accomplished within the single command

tar zxf jexcelapi_2_0.tar.gz

On Windows/NT systems, the archive may be unpacked visually using a
utility such as Winzip.

Whatever the unpacking process, the application will be placed in a
subdirectory called jexcelapi. The top level directory contains this
html page and the pre-built jar file, jxl.jar. The docs directory
contains the javadoc documentation for the public classes, the build
directory contains the buildfile (requires ant ) and the src directory
contains the source code for the java classes.

Excel Versions

JExcelApi will read workbooks created in Excel 95, 97 and 2000, and
will generate workbooks that can be read by Excel 97 and later.

Licensing

JExcelApi is issued on under the GNU Lesser General Public License.
For further information click here.

Further Notes

A tutorial is available for those who wish guidance on how to use the
API for reading, writing and copying spreadsheets.

When writing out spreadsheets, JExcelApi has limited support for
graphs charts and macros during the copy process, but they cannot be
created via the API.

For further technical information, including how JExcelApi handles
dates and unicode characters, read the technical notes
Download JExcelApi

Change History

I endeavour to answer all emails, but it's taking up more and more
time. Before emailing me with a question please check the FAQ first.

Eric Jung has set up a yahoo group here. As well as providing a
discussion forum I will also post a message to this group whenever a
new version of JExcelApi is released.

Stefano has ported JExcelApi to .net. You can access the software here
Evgeniy has ported 2.6.2 to C#, which you can download here

Acknowledgements
From version 2.6.5, JExcelApi uses JFlex to parse Excel formulas. The
JFlex runtime is distributed with JExcelApi, should you wish attempt a
rebuild of JXL. However, at runtime JXL only uses the generated
lexical parser and none of the actual JFlex runtime code, so users of
JExcelApi are not tied to the JFlex GPL rules, only the JExcelApi LGPL
agreements.

More information about JFlex can be here

Make a Donation
JExcelApi is free software and will remain so. If JExcelApi has been
of benefit to you or your company, perhaps you might like to make a
voluntary donation to JExcelApi using PayPal

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This site last updated 27th May, 2009