code: public void setAttributes(String str)
      {
          str = str.trim();
          String delimiter = ":";    // default is colon delimiter,
          if(str.indexOf(";") != -1) // but use semi-colon with date format parameters (eg. HH:mm)
              delimiter = ";";
          StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(str, delimiter);
          while(st.hasMoreTokens())
          {
              String token = st.nextToken().trim();
              int pos = token.indexOf("=");
              if(pos != -1)
              {
                  String name = token.substring(0, pos).trim();
                  String value = token.substring(pos+1).trim();
  
                  if(name.equals(TYPE_ATTR))
                  {
                      type = getCellType(value);
                  }
                  else if(name.equals(FORMAT_ATTR))
                  {
                      format = value;
                  }
                  else if(name.equals(INPUT_TYPE_ATTR))
                  {
                      inputType = getDataType(value);
                      if(outputType == NO_TYPE)
                          outputType = inputType;
                  }
                  else if(name.equals(INPUT_FORMAT_ATTR))
                  {
                      inputFormat = value;
                  }
                  else if(name.equals(OUTPUT_TYPE_ATTR))
                  {
                      outputType = getDataType(value);
                      if(inputType == NO_TYPE)
                          inputType = outputType;
                  }
                  else if(name.equals(OUTPUT_FORMAT_ATTR))
                  {
                      outputFormat = value;
                  }
                  else if(name.equals(REGEX_ATTR))
                  {
                      regex = value;
                  }
                  else if(name.equals(NULL_VALUE_ATTR))
                  {
                      nullValue = value;
                  }
                  else if(name.equals(ALIGN_ATTR))
                  {
                      align = getAlignment(value);
                  }
                  else if(name.equals(WRAP_ATTR))
                  {
                      wrap = Boolean.parseBoolean(value);
                  }
                  else if(name.equals(DISPLAY_ATTR))
                  {
                      display = value;
                  }
              }
          }
      }
docs: Set the column attributes from the given string in the format name=value[:name=value...]
  @param str The string containing the formatted attributes