//You need Apache POI library in order to work this code  //Using Apache POI     import java.io.File;       import java.io.FileInputStream;       import java.io.IOException;       import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFSheet;       import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook;       import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Cell;       import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.FormulaEvaluator;       import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Row;       public class ReadExcelFileDemo       {       public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException       {       //obtaining input bytes from a file       FileInputStream fis=new FileInputStream(new File("C:\\demo\\student.xls"));       //creating workbook instance that refers to .xls file       HSSFWorkbook wb=new HSSFWorkbook(fis);        //creating a Sheet object to retrieve the object       HSSFSheet sheet=wb.getSheetAt(0);       //evaluating cell type        FormulaEvaluator formulaEvaluator=wb.getCreationHelper().createFormulaEvaluator();       for(Row row: sheet)     //iteration over row using for each loop       {       for(Cell cell: row)    //iteration over cell using for each loop       {       switch(formulaEvaluator.evaluateInCell(cell).getCellType())       {       case Cell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC:   //field that represents numeric cell type       //getting the value of the cell as a number       System.out.print(cell.getNumericCellValue()+ "\t\t");        break;       case Cell.CELL_TYPE_STRING:    //field that represents string cell type       //getting the value of the cell as a string       System.out.print(cell.getStringCellValue()+ "\t\t");       break;       }       }       System.out.println();       }       }       }  

Read more of this post