Write contents to Excel

[babbu]

Hi,
I have a code that writes data to excel using setcontentype(application/vnd.ms-excel)
Now I want one of the columns to be formatted to currency.
I do not intend to use any additional jars(POI, etc).
Is it possible to achieve the task.

Thanks

[peter_budo]

It is possible, but you would have to know hell more about the structure of Excel document, so you better to use POI otherwise it is likely to take months. Can you explain why you do not want to use any available libraries?

[babbu]

Yes the app was designed to generate basic excel files. And there is a whole lot of coding that already exists and which will need to be replaced if I use libraries like POI.
Therefore I need to do this without using any libraries.
Is it possible?

[peter_budo]

Of course it is possible how would people actually put together POI or similar. Question is for you to answer to your self or your boss is it really worth to do it hard way...

For me answer is clear, use POI and just provide data to create Excel documents on the fly. I do not need to learn about Excel document format, don't have to come up with routines to insert data into cell, row, column etc.

[babbu]

Ok can you please direct me towards the hard way so I get a feel of how hard it is. That I can convince my boss better. :)
Thanks for your help

Do a search for the *.xls format.
You can try; http://www.wotsit.org/

[peter_budo]

You can let that baboon read this OpenOffice.org's Documentation of the Microsoft Excel File Format Excel Versions 2, 3, 4, 5, 95, 97, 2000, XP, 2003or Excel Binary File Format (.xls) Structure Specification