How to read a Excel file that is selected and submitted in JSP form ?

Question

The end user will select an excel file on executing the below jsp program.

   <form action="?? " method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" name="form1" id="form1"> 

    Upload File:
   <input name="file" type="file" id="file"><br><br>
   <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit"/><br><br>
   <input type="reset" name="Reset" value="Reset"/>   
   </form>

The excel sheet will be in a specified format which need to be read and compared with the contents of Database.

My query here is how should I proceed with this once the user browses the excel file and submits the jsp form.

How the excel sheet can be invoked to a java program and please explain me the steps of doing the same. Am a beginner in java and I would be so thankful if your answer is self explanatory.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can manipulate Excel documents with the Apache POI API.

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Your action should redirect you to a servlet which will handle the file. You'll need to handle multipart files, you can use Apache file upload to do this.

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Resources :

• Apache POI - Case studies
• Apache POI - FAQ
• Reading and Writing Excel Files with POI
• How do I upload a file to my servlet or JSP?
• How to use apache fileupload

On the same topic :

• Learning Apache POI for Java
• Reading date values from excel cell using POI HSSF API
• Managing file uploads in JSP/Servlets

Answer 2

Apache already invented a library to read excel sheet. Its name is Apache Poi. It's free and it's well documented. And of course a sample code is available