Here is an example to read a large xls file using sax parser.
public void parseExcel(File file) throws IOException {
OPCPackage container;
try {
container = OPCPackage.open(file.getAbsolutePath());
ReadOnlySharedStringsTable strings = new ReadOnlySharedStringsTable(container);
XSSFReader xssfReader = new XSSFReader(container);
StylesTable styles = xssfReader.getStylesTable();
XSSFReader.SheetIterator iter = (XSSFReader.SheetIterator) xssfReader.getSheetsData();
while (iter.hasNext()) {
InputStream stream = iter.next();
processSheet(styles, strings, stream);
stream.close();
}
} catch (InvalidFormatException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (SAXException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (OpenXML4JException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
protected void processSheet(StylesTable styles, ReadOnlySharedStringsTable strings, InputStream sheetInputStream) throws IOException, SAXException {
InputSource sheetSource = new InputSource(sheetInputStream);
SAXParserFactory saxFactory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
try {
SAXParser saxParser = saxFactory.newSAXParser();
XMLReader sheetParser = saxParser.getXMLReader();
ContentHandler handler = new XSSFSheetXMLHandler(styles, strings, new SheetContentsHandler() {
@Override
public void startRow(int rowNum) {
}
@Override
public void endRow() {
}
@Override
public void cell(String cellReference, String formattedValue) {
}
@Override
public void headerFooter(String text, boolean isHeader, String tagName) {
}
},
false//means result instead of formula
);
sheetParser.setContentHandler(handler);
sheetParser.parse(sheetSource);
} catch (ParserConfigurationException e) {
throw new RuntimeException("SAX parser appears to be broken - " + e.getMessage());
}