javaexcelapache-poipoi-hssf

Reading date values from excel cell using POI HSSF API

I'm using POI HSSF API for my excel manipulations in Java. I've a date value "8/1/2009" in one of my excel cell and while I try to read this value using HSSF API, it detects the cell type as Numeric and returns the 'Double' value of my date. See the sample code below:

cell = row.getCell(); // date in the cell '8/1/2009'
switch (cell.getCellType()) {

case HSSFCell.CELL_TYPE_STRING:
    cellValue = cell.getRichStringCellValue().getString();
    break;
case HSSFCell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC:
    cellValue = new Double(cell.getNumericCellValue()).toString();
    break;
default:
}

Cell.getCellType() returns NUMERIC_TYPE and thus this code converts the date to double! :(

Is there any way to read the date as it is in HSSF POI !?

Solution

  • You could take a look at:

    HSSFDateUtil.isCellDateFormatted()

    See the POI Horrible Spreadsheet Format API for more details on HSSFDateUtil:

    http://poi.apache.org/apidocs/org/apache/poi/hssf/usermodel/HSSFDateUtil.html

    That also provides some helper methods for returning Excel getExcelDate() and Java dates getJavaDate(). You need to be somewhat wary of different date formats though...