In our previous article, we went through the details of Apache POI, an open-source Java API for working with Microsoft file formats. In this article, we’ll go through the Apache POI component for working with Excel Workbooks. We will also show how to use Apache POI to create an Excel file and add sheets to it using this Java library.
Apache POI Java APIs for Accessing Excel File Formats Apache POI Java API provides separate components for working with two different Excel file formats.
Apache POI – Open-Source Java Library for Microsoft Office File Formats
Apache POI (Poor Obfuscation Implementation) is a popular open-source Java library developed by the Apache Software Foundation. POI stands for “Poor Obfuscation Implementation” humorously referencing Microsoft’s proprietary binary file formats. The main purpose of Apache POI is to provide Java developers with a set of APIs that allows them to read, write, and manipulate various Microsoft Office file formats, such as Excel spreadsheets (.xls and .xlsx), Word documents (.doc and .
How to add Hyperlinks in Excel using C#
Excel is an exceptional tool for working with large data sets, data visualization, and statistical analysis of data. While creating a detailed data report in Excel, certain data may require to be linked to external data sources, webpages, email addresses, and target locations in another worksheet in the same workbook. Microsoft Excel provides all these hyperlinking options.
As a .NET application developer, you may be interested in providing hyperlinking functionality in your C#/VB.
Set Cell Style in Excel using NPOI API in C#
Applying a style to a cell or set of cells is a very common operation while working with workbooks in Excel. By cell styling, we mean applying a defined set of formattings such as fonts, font sizes, number formats, cell borders, and cell shading. This helps in improved and better visualization of data for quick referencing.
As a .NET application developer, you may be interested in providing the functionality of setting cell style in Excel workbooks from within your .
Protect Excel Worksheets using NPOI in C#
Imagine you have hard worked to compile your data in an Excel workbook and saved it to your computer. Your kids are using the same computer for their educational purpose. They accidentally open the file you have compiled after so much hard work and somehow make changes to your data. All your hard work is now about to get wasted as data consistency may have arisen due to all these changes.
Merge Cells in Excel using NPOI in C#
A common operation in Microsoft Excel is to merge two or more cells. This gives a more organized look and feels to your data with the sense of data grouping and headers information. You can merge as many cells as well as rows and columns using Excel. As a .NET application developer, you may be interested in providing the functionality of merging cells in Excel spreadsheets from within your application. You can achieve this using NPOI API in your application that can merge cells or cell ranges using C# or VB.
Insert Image in Excel using NPOI in .NET
Inserting images in Excel files is a very commonly used feature for Microsoft Excel users. Adding images to your Excel workbooks helps clarify your point of view and data representation more effectively. You can add multiple images to each worksheet in your workbook. As a .NET application developer, you may want to add the feature of inserting images in Excel files from within your application programmatically. The good news is that this can be achieved using NPOI API in C# and VB.
Create Drop-down List in Excel with NPOI in C#
Drop-down lists provide a better way to limit users for data entry from a specified list of options. This removes the chances of making wrong data entries if input by the user manually. Creating drop-down lists in your Excel workbook is a preferred way of compelling users to choose from available dropdown entries only. When someone selects a cell, the options in drop-down lists appear from where they can make a selection.
Copy Worksheet in Excel with NPOI API using C#
Microsoft Excel is a perfect tool for working with data-intensive computations and calculations. People use it in their routine work to carry out complex calculations such as mathematical formula implementation, statistical analysis and many more. Data in an Excel worksheet may often need to be replicated in another worksheet in the same workbook for further operations and modifications. This can be achieved easily by using the COPY operation in Excel. As a .
Insert Header and Footer in Excel using NPOI in .NET
If you are a frequent user of working with Excel workbooks, you must be familiar with adding Headers and Footers to your file. As the name indicates, the Header in an Excel file represents the repetitive information added to the top of a file, whereas the Footer is used to add information to the bottom of each page in the file. Header and footer information is repeated on each page of the file.