These functions can be used to retrieve values from an Excel file using the Java POI library.

function getNumericValue(sheet,row, col) {
 Row = sheet.getRow(row);
 if (Row != null) {
 Cell = Row.getCell(col);
 if (Cell != null) {
 return(Cell.getNumericCellValue());
 }
 }
 return "";
}
function getStringValue(sheet,row, col) {
 Row = sheet.getRow(row);
 Cell = Row.getCell(col);
 if (Cell != null) {
 if (Cell.getCellType() == Cell.CELL_TYPE_STRING) {
 return Cell.getStringCellValue();
 }
 }
 return "";
}
function getDateValue(sheet,row, col) {
 Row = sheet.getRow(row);
 Cell = Row.getCell(col);
 if (Cell != null) {
 if ((Cell.getCellType() == Cell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC)
 || (Cell.getCellType() == Cell.CELL_TYPE_FORMULA)) {
 return Cell.getDateCellValue();
 }
 }
 return "";
}
/* taken vom http://trephine.org/t/index.php?
title=Extracting_Excel_data_with_Apache_POI_and_Rhino */
function cellValue(sheet, CellRow, CellCol) {
 row = sheet.getRow(CellRow);
 if (row != null) {
 cell = row.getCell(CellCol);
 if (cell != null) {
 var t = cell.cellType;
 if (t == Cell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC) {
 if (DateUtil.isCellDateFormatted(cell)) return new
 Date(cell.dateCellValue.time);
 else return cell.numericCellValue + 0.0;
 }
 if (t == Cell.CELL_TYPE_STRING) return cell.stringCellValue + '';
 if (t == Cell.CELL_TYPE_FORMULA) {
 try {
 if (DateUtil.isCellDateFormatted(cell)) return new
 Date(cell.dateCellValue.time);
 else return cell.numericCellValue + 0.0;
 } catch(err) { }
 try { return cell.stringCellValue + ''; } catch(err) { }
 try { return cell.numericCellValue + 0.0; } catch(err) { }
 try { return !!cell.booleanCellValue; } catch(err) { }
 try { return cell.errorCellValue + 0; } catch(err) { }
 return '';
}
 if (t == Cell.CELL_TYPE_BLANK) return '';
 if (t == Cell.CELL_TYPE_BOOLEAN) return !!cell.booleanCellValue;
 if (t == Cell.CELL_TYPE_ERROR) return cell.errorCellValue + 0;
 }
 }
 return null;
}
function isCellEmpty(sheet,row, col) {
 Row = sheet.getRow(row);
 if (Row != null) {
 Cell = Row.getCell(col);
 if (Cell != null) {
 if (Cell.getCellType() != Cell.CELL_TYPE_BLANK) {
 return false;
 }
 }
 }
 return true;
}