how to read exact cell content of excel file in apache POI

apache-poi, excel, java

Solution

No need for explicit formatting, Apache POI provides for `DataFormatter` class as utility to leverage the format of the content as it appears on the excel. You can choose custom formats too, a simple example would be (cell is reference to your `XSSFCell` object):

System.out.println(new DataFormatter().formatCellValue(cell));

Excel sheet looks like:

Using `DataFormatter` (sop statement above) prints:

50%
$ 1,200
12/21/14

Where your normal formatting would print:

0.5
1200.0
21-Dec-2014

Problem

when I read a content of cell for e.g. if it is in date format it casts into some another value like 12/31/2099 -> 46052 and $50.00 -> 50 and 50.00% -> 0.5. But what I want is to get the exact string value for every cell. My Code is like this: ``` cell.setCellType(Cell.CELL_TYPE_STRING); String str = cell.getStringCellValue(); ```

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