Overview There are two good choices for reading & writing Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet files from Java, in a platform independent way, - jexcelapi and Jakarta POI (HSSF). Both of them provide nice interface to access Excel data structure and even generate new spreadsheet. I have done extensive tests with both of them for a high-profile project for a Fortune 500 company. Previously also I had successfully used HSSF for another high profile client. In the paragraphs below I present my conclusions and sample code for reading Excel spreadsheet from Java using both the libraries.