I have a problem where my Google Script function is not passing in date values to my JavaScript. Text and numerical values however are being passed in. The Google Scripts function searches my google sheets document to find a row of values based on a value that is passed into it. It then takes the data, puts it into an array and ships it over to my JavaScript function. The JavaScript then assigns the values from the array to my HTML document.
Here is my JavaScript:
function callDataRetriever(){
var number = document.getElementById("number").value;
google.script.run.withSuccessHandler(dataRetriever).retreiveData(number);
}
function dataRetriever(data){
document.getElementById("location").value = data[0]; //This works
document.getElementById("dateOpened").value = data[1]; //This does not work. Stops the function from continuing its task.
document.getElementById("value1").value = data[2]; //Without the date everything here down works
document.getElementById("value2").value = data[3];
document.getElementById("value2").value = data[4];
document.getElementById("value4").value = data[5];
//...
}
Here is my Google Scripts:
function retreiveData(number){
var url = "urlToSpreadsheet";
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl(url);
var ws = ss.getSheetByName("Data");
var data = ws.getRange(1,1, ws.getLastRow(), ws.getLastColumn()).getValues();
var dataValues = [];
var filterData = data.filter(
function(r){
if(r[2] == number){
var i = 3;
while(i < 29){
dataValues.push(r[i]);
i++;
}
}
}
)
return dataValues;
}
In my Logs this is how it looks:
It is grabbing the date correctly however once passed into my JavaScript the function ceases to continue.
UPDATE:
Edited code based on doubleunary's suggestion. Now getting an error that I do not fully understand:
You cannot pass a Date object but will have to serialize it before sending. From the documentation:
Legal parameters and return values are JavaScript primitives like a Number, Boolean, String, or null, as well as JavaScript objects and arrays that are composed of primitives, objects and arrays. A form element within the page is also legal as a parameter, but it must be the function’s only parameter, and it is not legal as a return value. Requests fail if you attempt to pass a Date, Function, DOM element besides a form, or other prohibited type, including prohibited types inside objects or arrays. Objects that create circular references will also fail, and undefined fields within arrays become null.
Try using Utilities.formatDate(myDate, SpreadsheetApp.getActive().getSpreadsheetTimeZone(), 'yyyy-MM-dd') in the server side and new Date(data[1]) in the client side.
It seemed all I needed to do was add document.getElementById("dateValue").valueAsDate = new Date(data[1]); in my JavaScript and leave my Google-Script alone.
Related
JavaScript newbie here. I've searched and searched for answers and can't seem to figure this out. The arrays that I'm passing to a function aren't being passed as references properly. I don't think this is an async issue like many posts allude to but I could be wrong.
I have global arrays that I'm passing to a function. Inside the function, the arrays return their proper values, but when I try to access them outside of the function, they are undefined.
For context, I'm passing 3 arrays that hold the dry-bulb temperature, wet-bulb temperature, and hour that the measurements were taken for later calculations. I've only included a few sample data points for brevity. Sample code below:
function run(){
var hour = [];
var db = [];
var wb = [];
var cities = ["AB Edmonton","MI Detroit"];
getData(hour, db, wb, cities);
//this shows undefined, although within getData it is accurate data
alert(hour[1]);
}
function getData(hour, db, wb, cities){
//i= drop-down selection index, set to zero for testing
i=0;
switch(cities[i]) {
case "AB Edmonton":
hour = [1,2,3];
db = [15,18,21];
wb = [10,13,20];
break;
//case "MI Detroit":....
}
//this shows accurate values in the alert window
alert(cities[i] + " at hour:" + hour[i] + " the temp is:" + db[i]);
return [hour, db, wb];
};
run assigns empty arrays to hour, db and wb. These are variables which are locally scoped to the run function.
It then calls getData and passes those arrays as arguments.
Inside getData new local variables (also named hour, db and wb) are declared and are assigned the three empty arrays that were passed when the function was called.
The function then ignores those values and overwrites them with new arrays (these ones have contents).
It then returns another new array which holds each of those arrays.
This brings us back to run. The return value of getData is ignored completely and the original arrays (which are still stored in the hour, db and wb variables that belong to run) are accessed (but they are still empty).
You can either:
Manipulate the existing arrays inside getData instead of overwriting them. (e.g. hour = [1,2,3] may become hour.push(1); hour.push(2); hour.push(3)).
Use the return value of getData (in which case you don't need to bother assigning values or passing the empty arrays in the first place). You could use an object instead of an array so you can have useful names instead of an order here too.
Such:
function run(){
var cities = ["AB Edmonton","MI Detroit"];
var data = getData(cities);
alert(data.hour[1]);
}
function getData(cities){
//i= drop-down selection index, set to zero for testing
var i=0; // Use locally scoped variables where possible
var hour, db, wb;
switch(cities[i]) {
case "AB Edmonton":
hour = [1,2,3];
db = [15,18,21];
wb = [10,13,20];
break;
//case "MI Detroit":....
//this shows accurate values in the alert window
alert(cities[i] + " at hour:" + hour[i] + " the temp is:" + db[i]);
return { hour: hour, db: db, wb: wb];
};
Well, those aren't global variables. The one hour variable is local to run() in which it is declared with var, the other is local to getData in which it is declared as a parameter.
In your getData function you are overwriting the local variable (which initially has the value that was passed in by run()) in the line
hour = [1,2,3];
and from thereon the two variables refer to different arrays.
function getData(hour, db, wb, cities){ }
hour, db, etc are references to the initial Arrays.
When you write hour = [1,2,3];, the hour local references does not longer point to your desired Array, but to a new Array which you have just constructed: [1,2,3]. To fix this issue simply push values to the parameters
hours.push(1,2,3); so you won't overwrite your references.
This is the same problem that occurs when you do:
a = {x : 1};
function setX(obj) {
obj = {x: 2};
}
function correctSetX(obj) {
obj.x = 2;
}
The setX function will do nothing, while the correctSetX will correclty a to {x : 2}.
Thank you all for your help! I've posted how I edited my code to get it to work based on the comments. A couple things:
-I've moved all variables to be local in the getData() function. At least one of the comments gave the impression that it is better practice to keep variables local (forgive me, I am not a CSE guy by training, but I appreciate the tips and patience on your behalf)
-I wasn't able to simply use the .push method because the amount of data caused an error. (there are at least 8760 measurements per year) I can't remember the exact error but it was related to stack limits
-At the suggestion of Quentin, I instead created a dataSet object that had array properties. This object is what is returned by the getData function. Thank you again, this was a much better way to handle this
Sample below (with limited data):
function run(){
//get data
var dataSet = getData();
//test the result on the 2 hour reading
alert(dataSet.hour[1]);
}
function getData(){
//i= drop-down selection index, set to zero for testing
var i=0;
var hour,db,wb;
var cities = ["AB Edmonton","MI Detroit"];
switch(cities[i]){
case "AB Edmonton":
hour = [1,2,3];
db = [10,11,12];
wb = [13,14,15];
break;
//case "MI Detroit":...
} //end of switch
return {hour: hour, db: db, wb: wb};
}; //end of getData
What I'm trying to achieve
I have a spreadsheet with 2 sheets A & B.
A has 2 columns - Name, Amount (Master List)
B has 4 columns - Name, Amount, X, Y (Transaction List)
Name column of Sheet B references Name column of Sheet A for data. Whenever a name is selected, I want to populate Amount column in B with Amount in column of sheet A as a placeholder which users can override. For this, I plan to load the Sheet A data in an array (available Globally) so that in onEdit(e) I can refer that array instead of accessing Sheet B.
But the options I could find - CacheService and PropertyService - save only string values. But I want to have:
var myGlobalArray = [];
function on init(){
//iterate and fill the array such that it has following output
//myGlobalArray[Name1] = 1
//myGlobalArray[Name2] = 2
//myGlobalArray[Name3] = 3
}
function onEdit(e){
//if selected value is name1, populate myGolbalArray[Name1] value in Amount
}
Question
Where & how to define myGlobalArray?
I tried to use cache service with JSON.Stringify and JSON.parse but the array is empty in onEdit.
Each call to your script creates a new instance of your script with its own unique globals. Every time you call a script you will actually find a global "this" for that specific instance. You are correct to look at PropertyService as a persistent way to save data.
Right off I See that your globalArray is not set up right:
var myGlobalArray = [];
needs to be
var myGlobalArray = {};
myGlobalArray['name1'] = 1
myGlobalArray['name2'] = 2
myGlobalArray['name3'] = 3
//myGlobalArray = {name3=3.0, name1=1.0, name2=2.0}
var stringArray = JSON.stringify(myGlobalArray)
//{"name1":1,"name2":2,"name3":3};
Now that can be saved to and read from the property store.
PropertiesService.getScriptProperties().setProperty("NameArray", stringArray);
stringArray = PropertiesService.getScriptProperties().getProperty("NameArray");
myGlobalArray = JSON.parse(stringArray);
Logger.log(myGlobalArray['name1']) // returns 1
It's true that CacheService and PropertyService save only string values, but you can store any scalar data by using the JSON utilities JSON.stringify() and JSON.parse().
// Save an array in cache service
CacheService.getPublicCache()
.put("myGlobalArray", JSON.stringify(myGlobalArray));
// Retrieve an array from property service
var myGlobalArray = JSON.parse( CacheService.getPublicCache()
.get("myGlobalArray") );
// Save an array in property service
PropertiesService.getDocumentProperties()
.setProperty("myGlobalArray", JSON.stringify(myGlobalArray));
// Retrieve an array from property service
var myGlobalArray = JSON.parse( PropertiesService.getDocumentProperties()
.getProperty("myGlobalArray") );
When a variable is called "Global", we are referring to its scope, saying that it is available to all code within the same module. (You can read more about scope in What is the scope of variables in JavaScript?)
But since you're looking at CacheService and PropertyService, you already know that scope is only part of the problem. Each time that onEdit() is invoked, it will be running in a new execution instance on one of Google's servers. A value that had been in a global variable in a previous instance will not be available to this new instance. Therefore, we need to populate our "global variable" in each new invocation of our script.
An elegant way to reference global variables is as names properties of the special this object. For example, every function in our script can refer to this.myGlobalArray.1
You can adapt the getRssFeed() example from the Class Cache documentation into get_myGlobalArray(), say. Then your onEdit() trigger needs only to call that first to make sure that this.myGlobalArray contains the relevant array data.
function onEdit(e){
get_myGlobalArray();
//if selected value is name1, populate myGlobalArray[Name1] value in Amount
...
sheet.getRange(e.range.getRow(),2).setValue(myGlobalArray[e.value]);
}
/**
* Ensure the global variable "myGlobalArray" is defined and contains the
* values of column A in SheetA as an array.
*/
function get_myGlobalArray() {
if (typeof this.myGlobalArray == 'undefined') {
// Global variable doesn't exist, so need to populate it
// First, check for cached value
var cache = CacheService.getPublicCache();
var cached = cache.get("myGlobalArray");
if (cached) {
// We have a cached value, so parse it and store in global
this.myGlobalArray = JSON.parse(cached);
}
else {
// No value in the cache, so load it from spreadsheet
var data = SpreadsheetApp.getActive().getSheetByName("Sheet A").getDataRange().getValues();
this.myGlobalArray = {};
for (var row=0; row<data.length; row++) {
this.myGlobalArray[data[row][0]] = data[row][6];
}
// Stringify and store the global into the cache
cache.put("myGlobalArray", JSON.stringify(this.myGlobalArray));
}
}
}
Edit: Associative Array
In the comment within onEdit(), it's indicated:
//if selected value is name1, populate myGolbalArray[Name1] value in Amount
This implies that myGlobalArray is an associative array, where the index is a non-integer value. This requirement is now reflected in the way that this.myGlobalArray gets populated when read from the spreadsheet.
for (var row=0; row<data.length; row++) {
this.myGlobalArray[data[row][0]] = data[row][6];
// ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^
// Name ---------------/ /
// Amount ------------------------/
}
Much has been written about the different flavours of Javascript arrays, for instance Javascript Associative Arrays Demystified.
1 Actually, only functions with global scope would understand this to mean "global to the script". Functions that are contained inside objects would interpret this to mean their host object only. But that's a story for another day.
I have a google-sheets script that requires the user to type =getNotes("B19") in a cell. But I want them to only have to type =getNotes(B19) without the quotes. Is this possible? I'm sure I've used scripts that don't require quotes before.
function getNotes(cell) {
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var sheet = ss.getSheets()[0];
var range = sheet.getRange(cell);
var results = range.getNotes();
for (var i in results) {
for (var j in results[i]) {
Logger.log(results[i][j]);
}
}
return results;
}
When you need to access anything other than just the cell values via a custom function, then you will need to use the method of passing the cell reference as a string.
If the custom function is just using the values themselves, then you can pass a range, which will arrive in the script as a Javascript 2D array of values.
This is the array:
{"C8_235550":
{"listing":"aut,C8_235550_220144650654"},
"C8_231252":
{"listing":"aut,C8_231252_220144650654"}}
It was fetched with a GET request from a Firebase database using Google Apps Script.
var optList = {"method" : "get"};
var rsltList = UrlFetchApp.fetch("https://dbName.firebaseio.com/KeyName/.json", optList );
var varUrList = rsltList.getContentText();
Notice the .getContentText() method.
I'm assuming that the array is now just a string of characters? I don't know.
When I loop over the returned data, every single character is getting pushed, and the JavaScript code will not find key/value pairs.
This is the FOR LOOP:
dataObj = The Array Shown At Top of Post;
var val = dataObj;
var out = [];
var someObject = val[0];
for (var i in someObject) {
if (someObject.hasOwnProperty(i)) {
out.push(someObject[i]);
};
};
The output from the for loop looks like this:
{,",C,8,_,2,3,5,5,5,0,",:,{,",l,i,s,t,i,n,g,",:,",a,u,t,,,C,8,_,2,3,5,5,5,0,_,2,2,0,1,4,4,6,5,0,6,5,4,",},,,",C,8,_,2,3,1,2,5,2,",:,{,",l,i,s,t,i,n,g,",:,",a,u,t,,,C,8,_,2,3,1,2,5,2,_,2,2,0,1,4,4,6,5,0,6,5,4,",},}
I'm wondering if the array got converted to a string, and is no longer recognized as an array, but just a string of characters. But I don't know enough about this to know what is going on. How do I get the value out for the key named listing?
Is this now just a string rather than an array? Do I need to convert it back to something else? JSON? I've tried using different JavaScript array methods on the array, and nothing seems to return what it should if the data was an array.
here is a way to get the elements out of your json string
as stated in the other answers, you should make it an obect again and get its keys and values.
function demo(){
var string='{"C8_235550":{"listing":"aut,C8_235550_220144650654"},"C8_231252":{"listing":"aut,C8_231252_220144650654"}}';
var ob = JSON.parse(string);
for(var propertyName in ob) {
Logger.log('first level key = '+propertyName);
Logger.log('fisrt level values = '+JSON.stringify(ob[propertyName]));
for(var subPropertyName in ob[propertyName]){
Logger.log('second level values = '+ob[propertyName][subPropertyName]);
}
}
}
What you have is an object, not an array. What you need to do is, use the
Object.keys()
method and obtain a list of keys which is the field names in that object. Then you could use a simple for loop to iterate over the keys and do whatever you need to do.
I am writing a script for a Google Docs Spreadsheet to read a list of directors and add them to an array if they do not already appear within it.
However, I cannot seem to get indexOf to return anything other than -1 for elements that are contained within the array.
Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? Or point me to an easier way of doing this?
This is my script:
function readRows() {
var column = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getRangeByName("Director");
var values = column.getValues();
var numRows = column.getNumRows();
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var sheet = ss.getSheets()[0];
var directors = new Array();
for (var i = 0; i <= numRows - 1; i++) {
var row = values[i];
if (directors.indexOf(row) == -1) {
directors.push(row);
} else {
directors.splice(directors.indexOf(row), 1, row);
}
}
for (var i = 2; i < directors.length; i++) {
var cell = sheet.getRange("F" + [i]);
cell.setValue(directors[i]);
}
};
When you retrieve values in Google Apps Script with getValues(), you will always be dealing with a 2D Javascript array (indexed by row then column), even if the range in question is one column wide. So in your particular case, and extending +RobG's example, your values array will actually look something like this:
[['fred'], ['sam'], ['sam'], ['fred']]
So you would need to change
var row = values[i];
to
var row = values[i][0];
As an aside, it might be worth noting that you can use a spreadsheet function native to Sheets to achieve this (typed directly into a spreadsheet cell):
=UNIQUE(Director)
This will update dynamically as the contents of the range named Director changes. That being said, there may well be a good reason that you wanted to use Google Apps Script for this.
It sounds like an issue with GAS and not the JS. I have always had trouble with getValues(). Even though the documentation says that it is a two dimensional array, you can't compare with it like you would expect to. Although if you use an indexing statement like values[0][1] you will get a basic data type. The solution (I hope there is a better way) is to force that object into a String() and then split() it back into an array that you can use.
Here is the code that I would use:
var column = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getRangeByName("Director");
var values = column.getValues();
values = String(values).split(",");
var myIndex = values.indexOf(myDirector);
If myDirector is in values you will get a number != -1. However, commas in your data will cause problems. And this will only work with 1D arrays.
In your case: var row = values[i]; row is an object and not the string that you want to compare. Convert all of your values to an array like I have above and your comparison operators should work. (try printing row to the console to see what it says: Logger.log(row))
I ran into a similar problem with a spreadsheet function that took a range as an object. In my case, I was wanting to do a simple search for a fixed set of values (in another array).
The problem is, your "column" variable doesn't contain a column -- it contains a 2D array. Therefore, each value is it's own row (itself an array).
I know I could accomplish the following example using the existing function in the spreadsheet, but this is a decent demo of dealing with the 2D array to search for a value:
function flatten(range) {
var results = [];
var row, column;
for(row = 0; row < range.length; row++) {
for(column = 0; column < range[row].length; column++) {
results.push(range[row][column]);
}
}
return results;
}
function getIndex(range, value) {
return flatten(range).indexOf(value);
}
So, since I wanted to simply search the entire range for the existance of a value, I just flattened it into a single array. If you really are dealing with 2D ranges, then this type of flattening and grabbing the index may not be very useful. In my case, I was looking through a column to find the intersection of two sets.
Because we are working with a 2D array, 2dArray.indexOf("Search Term") must have a whole 1D array as the search term. If we want to search for a single cell value within that array, we must specify which row we want to look in.
This means we use 2dArray[0].indexOf("Search Term") if our search term is not an array. Doing this specifies that we want to look in the first "row" in the array.
If we were looking at a 3x3 cell range and we wanted to search the third row we would use 2dArray[2].indexOf("Search Term")
The script below gets the current row in the spreadsheet and turns it into an array. It then uses the indexOf() method to search that row for "Search Term"
//This function puts the specified row into an array.
//var getRowAsArray = function(theRow)
function getRowAsArray()
{
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet(); // Get the current spreadsheet
var theSheet = ss.getActiveSheet(); // Get the current working sheet
var theRow = getCurrentRow(); // Get the row to be exported
var theLastColumn = theSheet.getLastColumn(); //Find the last column in the sheet.
var dataRange = theSheet.getRange(theRow, 1, 1, theLastColumn); //Select the range
var data = dataRange.getValues(); //Put the whole range into an array
Logger.log(data); //Put the data into the log for checking
Logger.log(data[0].indexOf("Search Term")); //2D array so it's necessary to specify which 1D array you want to search in.
//We are only working with one row so we specify the first array value,
//which contains all the data from our row
}
If someone comes across this post you may want to consider using the library below. It looks like it will work for me. I was getting '-1' return even when trying the examples provide (thanks for the suggestions!).
After adding the Array Lib (version 13), and using the find() function, I got the correct row!
This is the project key I used: MOHgh9lncF2UxY-NXF58v3eVJ5jnXUK_T
And the references:
https://sites.google.com/site/scriptsexamples/custom-methods/2d-arrays-library#TOC-Using
https://script.google.com/macros/library/d/MOHgh9lncF2UxY-NXF58v3eVJ5jnXUK_T/13
Hopefully this will help someone else also.
I had a similar issue. getValues() seems to be the issue. All other methods were giving me an indexOf = -1
I used the split method, and performed the indexOf on the new array created. It works!
var col_index = 1;
var indents_column = main_db.getRange(1,col_index,main_db.getLastRow(),1).getValues();
var values = String(indents_column).split(","); // flattening the getValues() result
var indent_row_in_main_db = values.indexOf(indent_to_edit) + 1; // this worked
I ran into the same thing when I was using
let foo = Sheet.getRange(firstRow, dataCol, maxRow).getValues();
as I was expecting foo to be a one dimensional array. On research for the cause of the apparently weird behavior of GAS I found this question and the explanation for the always two dimensional result. But I came up with a more simple solution to that, which works fine for me:
let foo = Sheet.getRange(firstRow, dataCol, maxRow).getValues().flat();