How can we read protected password excel file (.xls) with POI API

apache-poi poi-hssf
embarus picture embarus · Jul 30, 2009 · Viewed 18k times · Source

I've just learned POI and find the HSSF is very simple to read and create excel file (.xls). However, I found some problem when want to read excel protected with password. It took me an hour to find this solution on internet.

Please could you help me to solve this problem. I'm very glad if you could give me a code snippet.

Thank you.

Answer

Randomness picture Randomness · Jun 12, 2011

See http://poi.apache.org/encryption.html - if you're using a recent enough copy of Apache POI (eg 3.8) then encrypted .xls files (HSSF) and .xlsx files (XSSF) can be decrypted (proving you have the password!)

At the moment you can't write out encrypted excel files though, only un-encrypted ones

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