Java: Lock Specific Cells in Excel

In Microsoft Excel, you can lock specific cells so that other users cannot make changes to the data or formulas within them. In this article, we will introduce how to lock cells in Excel programmatically in Java using Spire.XLS for Java library.

Install Spire.XLS for Java

First of all, you're required to add the Spire.Xls.jar file as a dependency in your Java program. The JAR file can be downloaded from this link. If you use Maven, you can easily import the JAR file in your application by adding the following code to your project's pom.xml file.

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>com.e-iceblue</id>
        <name>e-iceblue</name>
        <url>https://repo.e-iceblue.com/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>
    </repository>
</repositories>
<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>e-iceblue</groupId>
        <artifactId>spire.xls</artifactId>
        <version>14.11.0</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>
    

Lock Specific Cells in Excel in Java

Normally, the locked option is enabled for all cells in a worksheet. Therefore, before locking a cell or range of cells, all cells must be unlocked. Keep in mind that locking cells doesn’t take effect until the worksheet is protected.

The following are the steps to lock specific cells in Excel:

• Create an instance of Workbook class.
• Load the Excel file using Workbook.loadFromFile() method.
• Get the desired worksheet using Workbook.getWorksheets().get(sheetIndex) method.
• Access the used range in the worksheet and then unlock all the cells in the range using XlsRange.getStyle().setLocked() method.
• Access specific cells and then lock them using XlsRange.getStyle().setLocked() method.
• Protect the worksheet using XlsWorksheetBase.protect() method.
• Save the result file using Workbook.saveToFile() method.

import com.spire.xls.*;

import java.util.EnumSet;

public class LockCells {
    public static void main(String []args){
        //Create a Workbook instance
        Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
        //Load an Excel file
        workbook.loadFromFile("Input.xlsx");

        //Get the first worksheet
        Worksheet sheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(0);

        //Unlock all cells in the used range of the worksheet
        CellRange usedRange = sheet.getRange();
        usedRange.getStyle().setLocked(false);

        //Lock specific cells
        CellRange cells = sheet.getRange().get("A1:C3");
        cells.getStyle().setLocked(true);

        //Protect the worksheet with password
        sheet.protect("123456", EnumSet.of(SheetProtectionType.All));

        //Save the result file
        workbook.saveToFile("LockCells.xlsx", ExcelVersion.Version2016);
    }
}

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