title: Reading date values from excel cell using POI HSSF API
body: <p>I'm using POI HSSF API for my excel manipulations in Java. I've a date value "8/1/2009" in one of my excel cell and while I try to read this value using HSSF API, it detects the cell type as Numeric and returns the 'Double' value of my date. See the sample code below:</p>
  
  <pre><code>cell = row.getCell(); // date in the cell '8/1/2009'
  switch (cell.getCellType()) {
  
  case HSSFCell.CELL_TYPE_STRING:
      cellValue = cell.getRichStringCellValue().getString();
      break;
  case HSSFCell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC:
      cellValue = new Double(cell.getNumericCellValue()).toString();
      break;
  default:
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Cell.getCellType() returns NUMERIC_TYPE and thus this code converts the date to double! :(</p>
  
  <p>Is there any way to read the date as it is in HSSF POI !?</p>