Learning Apache POI for Java

Question

I'm trying to learn Apache POI for Java quickly (for manipulating Excel). I've been googling for tutorials, but so far all I've found is short, 2-paragraph explanations followed by a code sample. I wanted to find something a bit more comprehensive, that is concise but walks through it in a structured, complete, and understandable way. Anyone know of any good tutorials? Does Apache POI have any decent documentation...? I couldn't seem to find any on their site.

Answer 1

I prefer Andy Khan's JExcel to POI. It's a better API, and the docs are very good.

Answer 2

I found the documentation to be mostly lacking myself. I found the mailing group was my best resource for getting answers to my hard questions http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/poi-user/. For learning the basics I just followed the examples on the online documentation and used the trial and error approach with a simple console app.

Edit - Online documentation:

http://poi.apache.org/apidocs/org/apache/poi/xssf/usermodel/XSSFSheet.html http://poi.apache.org/spreadsheet/quick-guide.html