The Good Tech Companies - The Top Java Excel API Libraries

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/the-top-java-excel-api-libraries. Explore the top Java Excel API Libraries and their notable... features for your applications in this review of leading options. Check more stories related to programming at: https://hackernoon.com/c/programming. You can also check exclusive content about #web-development, #devops, #java, #excel, #api, #api-development, #java-development, #good-company, and more. This story was written by: @mesciusinc. Learn more about this writer by checking @mesciusinc's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com. Evaluate the top Java Excel API libraries based on their notable features.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This audio is presented by Hacker Noon, where anyone can learn anything about any technology. The Top Java Excel API Libraries by MESCIUS Inc. The ideal Java Excel API library for Java applications has all the features you need to perform Excel operations as if you're using the real thing. They're designed to allow developers to accomplish the greatest tasks with the least amount of work. This post will assess the top Java Excel libraries by examining the following features, create, read, and modify XLSX files. Comprehensive Excel-compatible charting, cell and range operations, worksheet management, use templates for Excel reporting, filtering and conditional formatting, formulas and functions. Data binding and import, export.
Starting point is 00:00:45 Read and write password-protected XLSX and XLSM workbooks. Performance and efficiency. Integration with client-side data viewer. Document solutions for Excel, Java Edition, DS Excel by MESCIUS. Document solutions for Excel, Java Edition, Deez Excel, is a Java Excel library designed to simplify the creation, manipulation, and processing of Excel files within Java applications. It offers developers an intuitive API for reading, writing, and formatting Excel files, eliminating the need for Microsoft Excel or additional third-party libraries. Create, read, and modify Excel SX files you can create, load, edit, and save Excel Excel SX spreadsheets. Comprehensive Excel-compatible Chartins Excel
Starting point is 00:01:33 supports integrating various types of charts in worksheets and provides customization features for chart titles, legends, data series, and more. You're also able to add charts in a template layout. Cell and range operations get and set all style and formula settings, among others, on cells, rows, or columns in Excel documents with the help of the range property of the iWorksheet interface included in their API library. Worksheet management through the use of workbook and worksheet objects. You can create, import, export, use passwords, add sheets, cut and copy ranges, copy and move worksheets, activate, configure, delete, protect, and add iterative calculations.
Starting point is 00:02:13 Automate Excel reports using XLSX templates Build professional Excel reports using XLSX templates Define Excel templates in Java to automate and generate comprehensive XLSX reports, such as invoices, sales reports, receipts, shipping labels, purchase orders, and more, with comprehensive syntax and an API to easily bind to images and generate advanced and complex custom Excel reports. Filtering and conditional formatting filter cells using qualifiers, including data, text, number, color, and icons. You can also highlight specific data by highlighting certain values using conditional formatting. Formulas and functions you can create and use formulas to calculate cell values.
Starting point is 00:02:57 D's Excel also supports more than 450 Excel functions. You can use the built-in functions or create your own customized functions. Data binding and import, ExportED's Excel supports one-way data binding with a cell, a worksheet, and table binding to various data sources to easily fill in your data automatically. You can use multiple sources to populate the data. For faster and more efficient importing, you can import only the data from Excel files instead of the whole object model. You can export the data to various formats, such as XLSX, PDF, CSV, HTML, JSON, and more. Read and write password-protected XLSX and XLSM workbooks You can tailor the protection of your workbooks using passwords that prevent data editing or changing the workbook structure and windows. You can also completely remove a workbook's password protection for unrestricted
Starting point is 00:03:49 editing. Performance and Efficiency SID's Excel is twice as fast as other competitors and uses less memory. Integrate with Client-Side Data Viewers Excel provides a JavaScript data viewer, which allows developers to build cross-platform web applications and load and view data documents on the client-side front-end across browsers using major JavaScript frameworks. Deez Excel Java is a sophisticated spreadsheet API that enables you to create spreadsheets almost instantly. If you're looking for a feature-rich library that equips you to perform high-level data manipulation and superior report generation. This is the Java Excel API library to use. Expose, Cells for Java, Create, Read, and Modify XLSX Files Expose. Cells for Java supports the XLS, XLSX, XLSM, XLSB, XLTX, XLTM, CSV, SpreadsheetML, and Odds Excel formats.
Starting point is 00:04:46 Comprehensive Excel-compatible charting create and modify your choice of numerous types of charts, such as pyramid and cylinder charts. You can also create and modify charts with custom formatting that combines column, column stack, line, and pie charts. All ESPOS cells charts can be converted to a range of image formats. Cell and range operations you can access cell data using the properties and methods provided by the worksheet class of Espos cells. You can create ranges, set values and styles, and more operations or manipulations using the range object. Worksheet management operations include adding, removing, copying, and moving worksheets.
Starting point is 00:05:26 Create, manipulate, or remove scenarios from worksheets, detect empty worksheets, and copy and move worksheets within and between workbooks. Use templates for Excel reporting You can create your own report templates. Use an existing Excel template or create a new Excel workbook, format it according to your requirements, and then save it as a template. Filtering and conditional formatting expose. CELS fully supports Microsoft Excel's auto-filter features, helping you to better understand the data in a particular range. You can also apply conditional formatting by using Designer Spreadsheet, using the copy method, or creating conditional formatting at runtime. Formulas and functions expose.
Starting point is 00:06:06 CEL supports most of Excel's standard and built-in formulas. DeveloperScan use its formula calculation engine to recalculate formulas imported from designer templates and to set, read, and calculate the results of the supported formulas and functions. Data binding and import-export data management features include using Espose. Cells. Grid Desktop or Espose. Cells. GridWeb's worksheets designer for data binding. The API also supports data import and export. For importing data, Espose. Cells will automatically import all data in an Excel file when opened. It also accepts imports from Array, ArrayList, ResultSet, and JSON. Read and write password-protected XLSX and XLSM workbooks. You can unlock the password-protected workbook structure of an Excel file, read and edit the worksheets, and then re-save the workbook with
Starting point is 00:06:57 the password. Performance and efficiency. The library has different options for achieving the best performance, particularly when handling large data. For example, for faster, more efficient processing, you can reduce and optimize memory use. Integrate with client-side data viewer you can integrate Espose.Cells.Grid.js into your Java project to open and edit Excel spreadsheets directly within your application. This option doesn't allow for data operations such as filter or sort. The ESPOS cells for Java Excel API components are high-speed and scalable. You can create your own report templates and apply advanced formatting to spreadsheet components. Apache POI, create, read, and modify XLSX files Apache POI provides separate Java implementations. HSSF is the POI Project
Starting point is 00:07:46 Spir Java implementation of the Excel 1997-2007 file formats. To create, read, and modify Excel SX files and other Excel versions released after 2007, you must use EXSSF. There is also SXSSF, which should be used instead of XSSF when generating very large spreadsheets. Comprehensive Excel-compatible charting the library doesn't have deep charting capabilities, providing limited support for just a few elementary chart types. It also generally doesn't enable chart modifications but allows you to create a chart in Excel, use HSSF to modify the chart data and produce a new spreadsheet. You can't modify charts. XSSF has limited editing capabilities and enables you to add only line and scatter charts.
Starting point is 00:08:33 Cell and range operations. You can conduct basic cell operations, including creating, aligning, merging, background color, moving rows up or down, and applying a single set of text formatting, color, style, font, etc. to cells. To apply style to a range, you must do so to each cell separately. Worksheet management Some capabilities include setting print area, adding footer page numbers, zoom magnification, freezing panes, and splitting panes. Use templates for Excel reporting You can read and rewrite Excel report templates.
Starting point is 00:09:06 Filtering and conditional formatting. Apache POI provides support for autofiller in both XLS and XLSX file formats. You can also apply conditional formatting to highlight cells based on formulas, cell values, items on a list, and more. Formulas and functions. You will find support for references, operators, built-in functions, add-in functions, array formulas, and region operators. The library recognizes Marethen 350 built-in functions and 280 evaluatable functions. It doesn't enable automatic recalculation, so you may have to make Excel recalculate the formulas when you open a workbook. Data binding and import, export Apache POI can import from and export to various data
Starting point is 00:09:48 sources. Read and write password-protected XLSX and XLSM workbooks Apache POI supports extracting data from password-protected Office files. You can provide the password during file access to read the content. Performance and efficiency Because of high memory usage and processing power consumption, the performance of the API can degrade. Apache POI provides stream-based processing suitable for large files and requires less memory. Integrate with client side data viewer the library provides no client side data viewer. Compared to other Java API libraries for Excel, Apache POI may be difficult to house or require
Starting point is 00:10:25 more effort. Its file compatibility is not as deep as others, OSSET only supports XLS and XLSX formats. POI tends to consume a large amount of memory for large sheets. Also, the library has extremely limited chart support and no client-side data viewer. E-ICE Blue, Spire. Excel's for Java. Create, read, and modify XLSX files. The library provides support for creating, reading, and modifying all Excel formats through Excel 2019. XLSX, XLSB, and XLSM, as well as OpenOffice format.
Starting point is 00:11:02 Odds. Comprehensive Excel-compatible charting. You can use charts in your worksheets. Spire. XLS supports creating, editing, and saving a range of charts, including scatter, pie, donut, line, bar, and waterfall. You can customize these charts by adding images, hiding gridlines, adding textboxes, and more. Cell and range operations. You can apply most of the typical Excel operations to cells and ranges, including insertion, deletions, merging, changing row height and column width, applying fonts, copying formatting from one cell range to another, and highlighting the intersection of two cell ranges. Worksheet management. You can use a range
Starting point is 00:11:42 of worksheet operations to add or remove worksheets, get worksheet names, freeze rows and columns, hide or show gridlines, split worksheets into files, and more. Use templates for Excel reporting Spire XLS allows you to export data to a special Excel template from comprehensive workbook designer to generate reports. Filtering and conditional formatting autofiller options include adding or removing autofiller and adding a data filter to a selected range to get data regarding specific dates or times. You can create custom filters based on certain criteria, such as specific text or numbers. The API also supports conditional formatting. Formulas and functions formula and
Starting point is 00:12:22 function support allows you to insert or read formulas and functions, remove formulas while keeping values on the worksheet, and more. Data Binding and Import, Export Spire XLS provides support for data binding. It also allows you to import data from and export data to multiple sources, including Database, Datatable, Dataset, and DataGridView. You can export data to worksheets and import and export select rows or columns. Read and write password-protected XLSX and XLSM workbooks. You can remove the password protection of XLSX and XLSM workbooks to make modifications and then save the file with the password reapplied. Performance and Efficiency Sci-Closed XML is suitable for applications that demand a balance
Starting point is 00:13:05 between ease of use and performance for Excel operations. Integrate with Client-Side Data Viewer Spire. XLS provides no Client-Side Data Viewer. Spire. XLS for Java is a professional Java Excel API that provides basic functionalities. You can create, manage, and edit Excel spreadsheets without downloading Microsoft Excel. The library is most suited for applications requiring the same performance and usability level but without access to a client-side data viewer. EasyXLS Java. EasyXLS is a Java Excel library designed to facilitate the creation, manipulation, and processing of Excel files in Java applications. It provides developers with an easy-to-use API for reading, writing, and formatting Excel files without needing Microsoft Excel or other third-party Excel libraries. Create, read, and modify XLSX files EasyXLS supports various Excel formats such as XLSX, XLSB, XLSM, XLS, CSV, and more from MS Excel 97-2024 and Office 365.
Starting point is 00:14:12 Comprehensive Excel-compatible charting EasyXLS supports 11 types of charts, including scatter, line, and donut charts, with plenty of customization options. There is also support for reading Excel files that contain charts and extracting chart information. Cell and range operations the library provides all the typical formatting capabilities, allowing you to modify alignment, border style and color, fill settings, and more. Cell comment scan be applied and styled. You can also define named ranges and use them in formulas. Worksheet management You can handle worksheets easily with the capability to create and remove them.
Starting point is 00:14:49 You can adjust worksheet properties, freeze and split panes, determine tab color, and more. Use templates for Excel Reporting Easy XLS does not support templates. Filtering and conditional formatting You can add autofiller to a range of cells or use your own custom filter. You can also apply conditional formatting to ranges and specify font and border styles, background and foreground options, and themes. Formulas and functions Formula calculation options include using functions to define formulas and loading Excel templates with predefined formulas. The calculation engine supports all Excel-supported functions.
Starting point is 00:15:26 Data binding and import, export There is support for importing, exporting database table data to or from Excel files. You can import data from supported Excel and text files as well as specific data structures, including list, dataset, and result set. EasyXLS does not support data binding. Read and write password-protected XLSX and XLSM workbooks EasyXLS allows you to create, read, and write password-protected XLSX and XLSM files, as well as to read password-protected Excel files. Performance and efficiency EasyXLS is generally fast and efficient, however, conducting operations on large spreadsheets
Starting point is 00:16:05 can impair the performance of the library, especially if they are complicated. You must take extra precautions to avoid loading the whole Excel file. Instead, read just the necessary data, if possible. Integrate with client-side data viewer EasyXLS does not have a client-side data viewer. According to its specification sheet, while EASY-XLS is an API library for generating columnar or chart reports, it can also be used to create simple Excel spreadsheets. It's a fast, easy-to-use library but may not be very suited to handle large Excel files without degrading performance and efficiency. Still, its charting capabilities ensure that you can create highly detailed charts.
Starting point is 00:16:46 You also have all the operations you need to efficiently manage and manipulate cells, worksheets, and workbooks for nearly every version of Excel formats released from 1997 to 2024. However, there is no client-side data viewer included. Conclusion All of the Java-based Excel API libraries mentioned above have very similar features, but some perform better than others. Additionally, many of the libraries don't include a standard front-end, client-side data viewer to display the data. If you're looking for a library that has the best of both worlds, a fast, full-featured document API backend with a professional
Starting point is 00:17:21 data viewer front-end, then the option that makes the most sense is Document Solutions for Excel, Java Edition. Thank you for listening to this Hackernoon story, read by Artificial Intelligence. Visit hackernoon.com to read, write, learn and publish.

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