How to distinguish between XSSF and HSSF automatically in Apache POI?

Question

I would like to be able to open Excel file of arbotrary type. Is it possible to select between HSSFWorkbook and XSSFWorkbook automatically?

Currently I write

Workbook workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(excelFile);

Can I write universal?

Answer 1

Yes! All you need to do is use WorkbookFactory

As per this part of the docs , it's better to use a File than an InputStream . So, just do something like:

File file = new File("input.xls");
Workbook wb = WorkbookFactory.create(file);

That will create whichever of HSSFWorkbook or XSSFWorkbook your file needs