Question

I know we can get the max number of columns by iterating over all the rows and calling getLastCellNumber on each row object.. but this approach requires iterating over all the rows which I want to avoid since it will take lot of time for files with a million rows(that’s the kind of files I am expecting to be read).

When POI reads a excel file, it stores the sheet dimensions (first row number, last row number , first col number, last col number) in an object of the DimensionsRecord class. So if I get this object I will get what I need. These objects can be obtained from the Sheet class which is an inner class of POI. I was able to extract what I need for XLS files, but I have hit a roadblock for XLSX files.

Does POI maintain DimensionsRecord object for XLSX also?, if yes has anybody tried to extract it? Or Is there some other by which this can be done?? please help!

Also I wanted to ask, whether my approach is correct or not, i.e I am using the inner classes of POI (it is getting my work done), is this correct or should I solely rely on exposed APIs (too time consuming).

Answer 1

There’s a dimension object on XSSF Sheets too. Try:

CTSheetDimension dimension = sheet.getCTWorksheet().getDimension();
String sheetDimensions = dimenson.getRef();

The one issue that springs to mind is I’m not sure if it’s required for the dimension (CTDimensions or DimensionsRecord) to always be correct…