title: how to parse a custom column in excel file using POI
body: <p>I need to parse a excel file which has a date time(mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss) stored in custom format. When I check the cell type it is indicating a numeric value, but I am not able to retrieve the value. It is displaying the below exception.</p>
  
  <pre><code>java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot get a numeric value from a text cell
      at org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFCell.typeMismatch(HSSFCell.java:648)
      at org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFCell.getNumericCellValue(HSSFCell.java:673)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When i try to read the value as date using 'cell.getDateCellValue()', then also I am  getting the same exception.</p>
  
  <p>If I try to retrieve the value as a string, then the exception is just reversed.</p>
  
  <p>Any idea how to make this work ?</p>