How do I set cell value to Date and apply default Excel date format?

Solution 1:

http://poi.apache.org/spreadsheet/quick-guide.html#CreateDateCells

CellStyle cellStyle = wb.createCellStyle();
CreationHelper createHelper = wb.getCreationHelper();
cellStyle.setDataFormat(
    createHelper.createDataFormat().getFormat("m/d/yy h:mm"));
cell = row.createCell(1);
cell.setCellValue(new Date());
cell.setCellStyle(cellStyle);

Solution 2:

To set to default Excel type Date (defaulted to OS level locale /-> i.e. xlsx will look different when opened by a German or British person/ and flagged with an asterisk if you choose it in Excel's cell format chooser) you should:

    CellStyle cellStyle = xssfWorkbook.createCellStyle();
    cellStyle.setDataFormat((short)14);
    cell.setCellStyle(cellStyle);

I did it with xlsx and it worked fine.