Apache POI autoSizeColumn() not working right

calendar_today Asked Apr 1, 2013
thumb_up 7 upvotes
history Updated April 16, 2026

Question posted 2013 ยท +4 upvotes

I am creating a program that writes information to an excel file using the apache poi. After I enter all of my data into the file I call the autoSizeColumn method on every column of the file. But it resizes the columns to the width of the last cell entered which is sometime not as big as the other cells in the column. I know I’m using it right and unfortunately I don’t have Internet right now to post any code but I will update when I can.

Ok I hope I am using the code tags right but here it is :

public void writeFile() {
    Workbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook();
    Sheet s = wb.createSheet();
    try {

        FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(
                this.getSelectedFile());
        // create a new workbook

        // create a new sheet

        // declare a row object reference
        Row r = null;
        // declare a cell object reference
        Cell c = null;
        // in case of plain ascii
        wb.setSheetName(0, "Street Light Report");
        // create a sheet with 30 rows (0-29)
        // int rownum;
        // short rownum;
        // PrintWriter printOut = new PrintWriter(
        // this.getSelectedFile());
        String[] colName = { "Light Id", "Flagged",
                "Malfunction", "Comments", "Location", "Date" };
        // printOut.println("Light Id,Flagged,Malfunction,Comments,Location,Date");
        Connections.connect();
        String[][] data = Connections.searchForFlagged();
        for (int i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
            r = s.createRow(i);
        }
        r.setRowNum(0);
        for (int j = 0; j < 6; j++) {
            c = r.createCell(j);
            switch (j) {
            case 0:
                c.setCellValue(colName[j]);
                break;
            case 1:
                c.setCellValue(colName[j]);
                break;
            case 2:
                c.setCellValue(colName[j]);
                break;
            case 3:
                c.setCellValue(colName[j]);
                break;
            case 4:
                c.setCellValue(colName[j]);
                break;
            case 5:
                c.setCellValue(colName[j]);
                break;

            }
        }

        for (int i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {

            r.setRowNum(i + 1);
            for (int j = 0; j < data[i].length; j++) {

                c = r.createCell(j);

                // System.out.println(data[i][j]);

                switch (j) {
                case 0:
                    c.setCellType(Cell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC);
                    c.setCellValue(Integer.parseInt(data[i][j]));
                    break;
                case 1:
                    if (data[i][j].equals("true"))
                        c.setCellValue("Yes");
                    else
                        c.setCellValue("No");
                    break;
                case 2:
                    if (data[i][j].equals("I"))
                        c.setCellValue("Intermittent");
                    else
                        c.setCellValue("Not Functional");
                    break;
                case 3:
                    c.setCellValue(data[i][j]);
                    break;
                case 4:
                    c.setCellValue(data[i][j]);
                    break;
                case 5:
                    c.setCellValue(data[i][j]);
                    break;
                }

            }
        }
                                wb.getSheetAt(0).setPrintGridlines(true);
        for (int j = 0; j < 6; j++) {
            s.autoSizeColumn(j);
        }
        wb.write(out);
        out.close();
    } catch (Exception ex) {

    }
};

I would post an image here but I need rep. point and I just started here.

** Note that the Connections class is the JDBC class so that java can pull the information from th mySQL database it returns a 2D array of strings **

Accepted answer +7 upvotes

You just need to move the call to

sheet.autoSizeColumn(columnNumber);

to a point in your code after the data has been added.

Here is a link to the API

That’s the only way to do it. I had same problem, I was calling the method autoSizeColumn() before I entered the data. Hop it helped

Top excel Q&A (6)

+7 upvotes ranks this answer #122 out of 167 excel solutions on this site .