iterator.next skipping index

Question

I have an iterator and the values are like this:

index   value
0        A
1        B
2        null
3        null
4        E
5        F

and here is my code:

Iterator<Cell> cellIterator = row.cellIterator();
while (cellIterator.hasNext()) {
      cell = cellIterator.next();
      System.out.println(cell.getStringCellValue());
}

and the output is

A
B
E
F

Why does it skip indexes when the value is null? How can I loop over all indexes although the value is null? I want the output to be like:

A
B
null
null
E
F

Answer 1

The null values aren't showing up because in Excel, the Cell s don't exist in cells 2 and 3. There are only 4 cells total in that row.

If you want to cover the entire row, even where there aren't cells, you must change from using an iterator to a traditional for loop.

for (int i = 0; i < row.getLastCellNum(); i++)
{
    cell = row.getCell(i);
    if (cell == null)
    {
        System.out.println("null");
    }
    else
    {
        System.out.println(cell.getStringCellValue());
    }
}

The getLastCellNum method "Gets the index of the last cell contained in this row PLUS ONE .", so the for loop condition is correct as written.

I had code using the MissingCellPolicy CREATE_NULL_AS_BLANK , which will turn a nonexistent Cell into a blank Cell , which results in "" , so we must test whether the cell is present with a null check.

A new, blank cell is created for missing cells. Blank cells are returned as normal