Duplicates values -> binarytree ?

[Michael Mangeng <mi...@inexess.com>]

Hi

I`ve encountered a strange problem...

When i do:
        try {
            workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(new FileInputStream(targetFile));
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

... the following Exception occours:

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Cannot store a duplicate value 
("---") in this Map
        at org.apache.poi.util.BinaryTree.insertValue(BinaryTree.java:1395)
        at org.apache.poi.util.BinaryTree.put(BinaryTree.java:1580)
        at 
org.apache.poi.hssf.record.SSTRecord.processString(SSTRecord.java:1033)
        at 
org.apache.poi.hssf.record.SSTRecord.manufactureStrings(SSTRecord.java:960)
        at 
org.apache.poi.hssf.record.SSTRecord.fillFields(SSTRecord.java:818)
        at org.apache.poi.hssf.record.Record.fillFields(Record.java:142)
        at org.apache.poi.hssf.record.Record.<init>(Record.java:104)
        at org.apache.poi.hssf.record.SSTRecord.<init>(SSTRecord.java:161)
        ... 36 more
org.apache.poi.hssf.record.RecordFormatException: Unable to construct 
record instance, the following exception occured: null
        at 
org.apache.poi.hssf.record.RecordFactory.createRecord(RecordFactory.java:259)
        at 
org.apache.poi.hssf.record.RecordFactory.createRecords(RecordFactory.java:184)
        at 
org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook.<init>(HSSFWorkbook.java:140)
        at 
org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook.<init>(HSSFWorkbook.java:175)

I`ve searched the ...poi.util. pkg and discovered that this is a 
limitation of the Binarytree implementation...

Yes,  the excel table contains these "---" entries in various 
columns..... but how can i edit this excel file with POI now?

File is stored with Openoffice 1.0 as "Microsoft Windoes 2000/XP".

greets and thanks for any response
mike