Limitations

Version 1.5 limitations

The intent of this document is to outline some of the known limitations of the POI HSSF API's. It is not intended to be complete list of every bug or missing feature of HSSF, rather it's purpose is to provide a broad feel for some of the functionality that is missing or broken.

  • Charts

    You can not currently create charts. This is planned for the 2.0 release. You can however create a chart in Excel, modify the chart data values using HSSF and write a new spreadsheet out. This is possible because POI attempts to keep existing records intact as far as possible.

  • Rich Text

    HSSF does not support rich text cells. Rich text cells are cells that have multiple fonts and styles in the once cell. Any attempt to read a spreadsheet that has rich text cells will throw an exception. This feature may be supported in the future but it is not currently planned. Patches are welcome.

  • Outlines

    It is not yet possible to create outlines. Reading a spreadsheet with outlines may work correctly but has not been tested. Write support for outlines may be added in the future but it is not currently planned. Patches are welcome.

  • Macros

    Macros can not be created. The are currently no plans to support macros. Reading workbooks containing macros is supported but attempting to write those workbooks will fail. This is because macros are stored as extra file sytems within the compound document, and these are not currently kept when the file is rewritten.

  • Pivot Tables

    Generating pivot tables is not supported. Reading spreadsheets containing pivot tables has not been tested.
by Glen Stampoultzis
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