Do you have hello.xls in your c: drive?If not then create it.Anyways do you have POI library in the lib folder of your apache tomcat?

Here is the code:

<%@page import="java.io.*"%>
<%@page import="java.util.*"%>
<%@page import="org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFSheet"%>
<%@page import="org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook"%>
<%@page import="org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFRow"%>
<%@page import="org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFCell"%>
    <table border="1">

<%
 short a=0;
  short b=1;
  short c=2;
  short d=3;
  int i=0;
   String   value1="", value2="",value3=" ", value4="";
    String filename ="C:/hello.xls"; 
    if (filename != null && !filename.equals("")) {
    try{
    FileInputStream fs =new FileInputStream(filename);
    HSSFWorkbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook(fs);
    for (int k = 0; k < wb.getNumberOfSheets(); k++){
        int j=i+1;



    HSSFSheet sheet = wb.getSheetAt(k);
    int rows  = sheet.getPhysicalNumberOfRows();
    for (int r = 0; r < rows; r++){
    HSSFRow row   = sheet.getRow(r);
    int     cells = row.getPhysicalNumberOfCells(); 
      out.write("<br>");

    HSSFCell cell1  = row.getCell(a);

      value1 = cell1.getStringCellValue();
      HSSFCell cell2  = row.getCell(b);
        value2 = cell2.getStringCellValue();
         HSSFCell cell3  = row.getCell(c);
         value3 = cell3.getStringCellValue();
          HSSFCell cell4  = row.getCell(d);
          value4 = cell4.getStringCellValue();
    %>
    <tr><td><%=value1%></td><td><%=value2%></td><td><%=value3%></td><td><%=value4%></td></tr>
    <%
    }
        i++;
    }
    }
    catch(Exception e){
        System.out.println(e);
    }
    }
    %>
    </table>

Hi,

hello.xls and POI library files are there in respective folders.
the printStackTrce() method  shows the following Error message on console.


----------
java.io.IOException: Invalid header signature; read 576460838270094160, expected -2226271756974174256
        at org.apache.poi.poifs.storage.HeaderBlockReader.<init>(HeaderBlockReader.java:88)
        at org.apache.poi.poifs.filesystem.POIFSFileSystem.<init>(POIFSFileSystem.java:83)
        at org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook.<init>(HSSFWorkbook.java:230)
        at org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook.<init>(HSSFWorkbook.java:211)
        at org.apache.jsp.AdminSaaS.excelreading_jsp._jspService(excelreading_jsp.java:71)
        at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:97)
        at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)
        at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:332)
        at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:314)
        at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:264)
        at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:252)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:213)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:178)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:126)
        at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:105)
        at org.apache.catalina.valves.FastCommonAccessLogValve.invoke(FastCommonAccessLogValve.java:495)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:107)
        at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:148)
        at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:869)
        at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11BaseProtocol.java:664)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:527)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:80)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:684)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)

Your .xls is not a proper xls file. It's a text file with a .xls extension s.t. Excel can quietly convert it and display as a spreadsheet. HSSF deals with files written in Excel format only. I know the cause but donno the solution.

Thanks.