Help Needed in creating dropdown menu in excel using JXL

Question

Hi,
I am trying to create dropdown menu in using JXL.
The Code:
private void createRequiredRows(WritableSheet writableSheet, List unallowCodeList,int rowCount
               , int startRowNo,int colCount) throws WriteException {
Label unallowCode = null;
          WritableFont noBoldFont = new WritableFont(WritableFont.ARIAL, 8,WritableFont.NO_BOLD);
          WritableCellFormat dropDownCellFormat = new WritableCellFormat(noBoldFont,new NumberFormat("000"));
          dropDownCellFormat.setAlignment(Alignment.RIGHT);
          WritableCellFeatures writableCellFeature = new WritableCellFeatures();
          writableCellFeature.setDataValidationList(unallowCodeList);
          for (int rowNo = startRowNo; rowNo < startRowNo + rowCount; rowNo++) {
               unallowCode = new Label(colCount, rowNo, "Select",dropDownCellFormat);
               unallowCode.setCellFeatures(writableCellFeature);
               writableSheet.addCell(unallowCode);
it creates a drop down in the Excel.
But writableCellFeature.setDataValidationList(unallowCodeList); has a limitation of characters .So the dropdown menu gets truncated when it exceeds the limitation.
Can anyone help me in creating dropdown menu in excel without any limitation using JXL..
Thanks,
Bisin

Answer 1

Hi,
I dont know the solution for this, but heres a work arround
//create new label some where else in the excel sheet as shown below
Label lblcmbdata;
for(int i=0; i<1000; i++)
             lblcmbdata = new Label(75, i, (i+1)+" satish", format);
             sheet1.addCell(lblcmbdata);
}//set the validation range as shown below
writableCellFeature.setDataValidationRange(75,0,75,1000);
Label cmb = null;
cmb = new Label(0, 1, "Select",format);
cmb.setCellFeatures(writableCellFeature);
sheet.addCell(cmb);this will create a combo list with 1000 values
also you can keep the data to be populated in the different sheet in same workbook by creating a named range as below
workbook.addNameArea("cmbdata", sheet1, 0, 0, 0, 1000);
// then fill the data in sheet1
Label lblcmbdata;
for(int i=0; i<1000; i++)
                lblcmbdata = new Label(0, i, (i+1)+" satish", format);
                sheet1.addCell(lblcmbdata);
//set the validation named range as below
writableCellFeature.setDataValidationRange("cmbdata");
Label cmb = null;
cmb = new Label(0, 1, "Select",format);
cmb.setCellFeatures(writableCellFeature);
sheet.addCell(cmb);Thanks and Regards
Satish