Create a new Java project "JavaExcelRead" and save it somewhere, e.g. "c:/temp/lars.xls".

Create an excel spreadsheet.

Create a package "reader" and the following class "ReadExcel".

I assume that the coding is pretty much self-explaining. I tried to add lots of comments to make it easier to understand.For more complex examples have a look at the excellent documentation of the Java Excel API which is also part of the distribution.

			
package reader;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

import jxl.Cell;
import jxl.CellType;
import jxl.Sheet;
import jxl.Workbook;
import jxl.read.biff.BiffException;

public class ReadExcel {

	private String inputFile;

	public void setInputFile(String inputFile) {
		this.inputFile = inputFile;
	}

	public void read() throws IOException  {
		File inputWorkbook = new File(inputFile);
		Workbook w;
		try {
			w = Workbook.getWorkbook(inputWorkbook);
			// Get the first sheet
			Sheet sheet = w.getSheet(0);
			// Loop over first 10 column and lines

			for (int j = 0; j < sheet.getColumns(); j++) {
				for (int i = 0; i < sheet.getRows(); i++) {
					Cell cell = sheet.getCell(j, i);
					CellType type = cell.getType();
					if (cell.getType() == CellType.LABEL) {
						System.out.println("I got a label "
								+ cell.getContents());
					}

					if (cell.getType() == CellType.NUMBER) {
						System.out.println("I got a number "
								+ cell.getContents());
					}

				}
			}
		} catch (BiffException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
		ReadExcel test = new ReadExcel();
		test.setInputFile("c:/temp/lars.xls");
		test.read();
	}

}