Aspose.Cells FOSS
Java
Core Cell Operations

How to Work with Core Cell Operations in Java

Overview

The Cell class is the core unit for storing and reading spreadsheet data. This guide covers typed value storage, type inspection, formula storage, and string value access.

Storing Typed Values

Cell.putValue() accepts six Java types: String, int, double, boolean, LocalDateTime, and Object. Each call stores the value and determines the CellValueType returned by cell.getType(). Use the typed overload that matches the data — calling putValue(int) stores an integer that round-trips without gaining a decimal point:

import com.aspose.cells_foss.Cell;
import com.aspose.cells_foss.Workbook;
import com.aspose.cells_foss.Worksheet;

try (Workbook workbook = new Workbook()) {
    WorksheetCollection sheets = workbook.getWorksheets();
    Worksheet sheet = sheets.get(0);
    Cell a1 = sheet.getCells().get("A1");
    a1.putValue("Label");        // String
    Cell b1 = sheet.getCells().get("B1");
    b1.putValue(42);             // int
    Cell c1 = sheet.getCells().get("C1");
    c1.putValue(3.14);           // double
    Cell d1 = sheet.getCells().get("D1");
    d1.putValue(true);           // boolean
    workbook.save("typed.xlsx");
}

Inspecting Value Type

Call cell.getType() to get the CellValueType enum value for any stored value. Use cell.getStringValue() to get a locale-independent string representation regardless of the underlying type:

import com.aspose.cells_foss.Cell;
import com.aspose.cells_foss.CellValueType;
import com.aspose.cells_foss.Workbook;
import com.aspose.cells_foss.Worksheet;

try (Workbook workbook = new Workbook()) {
    WorksheetCollection sheets = workbook.getWorksheets();
    Worksheet sheet = sheets.get(0);
    Cell b1 = sheet.getCells().get("B1");
    b1.putValue(123);
    CellValueType type = b1.getType();
    System.out.println(type);           // NUMBER
    System.out.println(b1.getStringValue());  // "123"
    workbook.save("inspect.xlsx");
}

Storing Formulas

Call cell.setFormula() with a standard Excel formula string. The cell type changes to CellValueType.FORMULA and the formula is preserved in the XLSX file; Excel recalculates the result when the file is opened:

import com.aspose.cells_foss.Cell;
import com.aspose.cells_foss.Workbook;
import com.aspose.cells_foss.Worksheet;

try (Workbook workbook = new Workbook()) {
    WorksheetCollection sheets = workbook.getWorksheets();
    Worksheet sheet = sheets.get(0);
    Cell b1 = sheet.getCells().get("B1");
    b1.putValue(100.0);
    Cell c1 = sheet.getCells().get("C1");
    c1.setFormula("=B1*1.2");
    workbook.save("formulas.xlsx");
}

See Also

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