Connect Flat files using jdbc

Question

Hi,
I have a problem with connecting flat files(.txt, .xml, .csv, .xls, etc...) which is existing in application it's self, using jdbc connection.
After searching I found some suggestions below.
1)xlsql
2)JDO
I tried with first one (xlsql), below is the process. First create core java project and load the jar files which is from xlsql. below is the code
Class.forName("com.nilostep.xlsql.jdbc.xlDriver");
final String dir = System.getProperty("user.dir")+"\\db\\xl";
conn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:nilostep:excel:/"+dir);
Statement stmt = con.createStatement();
String sql = "select * from Sheet1$";
ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(sql);
if(rs.next()){
System.out.println(rs.getString(1));
}else{
System.out.println("nodata....");
It is saying Sheet1$ table not existing.
Please help me.

Answer 1

Not quite sure of your definition of a flat file, but a .xls files is a Microsoft Excel workbook, which is saved in a proprietary binary format, so there's certainly nothing 'flat' about it.  Of course, there are odbc and suchlike drivers for treating Excel workbooks as data sources, but you need to ensure when you query them that you know the details of the workbook.
In each workbook, each spreadsheet has a name (as defined on it's tab at the bottom).  That is taken to be the name of the 'table' that you use when you query it with SQL.
On each spreadsheet, row 1 of that sheet should denote the column names of the 'table'
All subsequent rows on the spreadsheet are the data that will be returned from querying it.
Typically, the data on the sheets should be fairly straightforward, in order to query it.  Some excel functionality may prevent it being queried properly.