На Javaworld есть документ, Это POI-Fect , показывающий, как это достигается.
Пример:
String fileName = "C:/MyExcelFile.xls"; // file we are interested in
POIFSFileSystem fileSystem = new POIFSFileSystem(new FileInputStream(fileName));
HSSFWorkbook workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(fileSystem);
HSSFSheet sheet = workbook.getSheetAt(0); //Get first Excel Sheet
//Iterate throw each row.
Iterator<Row> rows = sheet.rowIterator();
while (rows.hasNext()) {
HSSFRow row = (HSSFRow) rows.next();
Iterator<Cell> cells = row.cellIterator();
while (cells.hasNext()) {
HSSFCell cell = (HSSFCell) cells.next();
//Must do this, you need to get value based on the cell type
switch (cell.getCellType()) {
case HSSFCell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC:
System.out.println(cell.getNumericCellValue());
break;
case HSSFCell.CELL_TYPE_STRING:
System.out.println(cell.getStringCellValue());
break;
default: break;
}
}
}