Created attachment 24328 [details] standalone quickfix for testing The method getCellComment() located at HSSFCell may return a wrong comment if more comments have been added later. Problem: The method HSSFCell.findCellComment() makes an assumption about the ordering of text records that is probably wrong. Line 1084 " //find the next TextObjectRecord which holds the comment's text //the order of TXO matches the order of NoteRecords: i-th TXO record corresponds to the i-th NoteRecord" Steps to reproduce: - create an excel sheet with some cell comments - close and re-open it - add a new comment to a cell above(!) the existing comments - go through existing cells and output the result of cell.getCellComment() Some comments will not match these you typed in in excel. Solution proposal: ================== Match objectId of text record with note's shape Id for a correct assignment. Replace list by a map in line 1057 Map<Integer, TextObjectRecord> noteTxo = new HashMap<Integer, TextObjectRecord>(); Change line 1089 noteTxo.put(cmo.getObjectId(), (TextObjectRecord) rec); Change line 1065 TextObjectRecord txo = noteTxo.get(note.getShapeId()); WARNING: This is a new assumption. I did not verify this under all circumstances or against documentation. But in my environment it runs fine. For those being in a hurry I attach a standalone quick fix hack (works without patching the jar).
Karl, A very good catch, thanks! The logic to match NoteRecord and TextObjectRecord should not rely on the order of records, instead it should match them by objectId, as you suggested. I easily reproduced the bug in Excel 2003 and Excel 2007. P.S. I wrote this code some years ago when the Excel spec was closed. Most of it was derived by trial and error and hence can be not optimal. Regards, Yegor