Develop Reference

Is it possible to pull different data sets from one column?

I've been trying to write some code that looks down one column with strings based on some simple formulas. I can't seem to get it to recognize the different sets of data and paste them where I want them.
I have tried re writing the code a few different ways in which is looks at all the data and just offsets the destination row by 1. But it does not recognize that it is pull different data.
Below is the code that works. What it does is starts from the 1st column 2nd row (where my data starts). The data is a list like;
A
1 Customer1
2 item1
3 item2
4 Item3
5
6 Customer2
7 Item1
The formulas that I have in those cells just concatenates some other cells.
Using a loop it looks through column A and find the blank space. It then "breaks" whatever number it stops on, the numerical A1 notation of the cell, it then finds the values for those cells and transposes them In another sheet in the correct row.
The issue I am having with the code this code that has worked the best is it doesn't read any of the cells as blank
(because of the formulas?) and it transposes all to the same row.
function transpose(){
var data = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var input =data.getSheetByName("EMAIL INPUT");
var output = data.getSheetByName("EMAIL OUTPUT");
var lr =input.getLastRow();
for (var i=2;i<20;i++){
var cell = input.getRange(i, 1).getValue();
if (cell == ""){
break
}
}
var set = input.getRange(2, 1, i-1).getValues();
output.getRange(2,1,set[0].length,set.length) .
.setValues(Object.keys(set[0]).map ( function (columnNumber) {
return set.map( function (row) {
return row[columnNumber];
});
}));
Logger.log(i);
Logger.log(set);
}
What I need the code to do is look through all the data and separate the sets of data by a condition.
Then Transpose that information on another sheet. Each set (or array) of data will go into a different row. With each component filling across the column (["customer1", "Item1","Item2"].
EDIT:
Is it Possible to pull different data sets from a single column and turn them into arrays? I believe being able to do that will work if I use "appendrow" to tranpose my different arrays to where I need them.

Test for the length of cell. Even if it is a formula, it will evaluate the result based on the value.
if (cell.length !=0){
// the cell is NOT empty, so do this
}
else
{
// the cell IS empty, so do this instead
}
EXTRA
This code takes your objective and completes the transposition of data.
The code is not as efficient as it might/should because it includes getRange and setValues inside the loop.
Ideally the entire Output Range could/should be set in one command, but the (unanswered) challenge to this is knowing in advance the maximum number rows per contiguous range so that blank values can be set for rows that have less than the maximum number of rows.
This would be a worthwhile change to make.
function so5671809203() {
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var inputsheetname = "EMAIL_INPUT";
var inputsheet = ss.getSheetByName(inputsheetname);
var outputsheetname = "EMAIL_OUTPUT";
var outputsheet = ss.getSheetByName(outputsheetname);
var inputLR =inputsheet.getLastRow();
Logger.log("DEBUG: the last row = "+inputLR);
var inputrange = inputsheet.getRange(1, 1,inputLR+1);
Logger.log("the input range = "+inputrange.getA1Notation());
var values = inputrange.getValues();
var outputval=[];
var outputrow=[];
var counter = 0; // to count number of columns in array
for (i=0;i<inputLR+1;i++){
Logger.log("DEBUG: Row:"+i+", Value = "+values [i][0]+", Length = "+values [i][0].length);
if (values [i][0].length !=0){
// add this to the output sheet
outputrow.push(values [i][0]);
counter = counter+1;
Logger.log("DEBUG: value = "+values [i][0]+" to be added to array. New Array Value = "+outputrow+", counter = "+counter);
}
else
{
// do nothing with the cell, but add the existing values to the output sheet
Logger.log("DEBUG: Found a space - time to update output");
// push the values onto an clean array
outputval.push(outputrow);
// reset the row array
outputrow = [];
// get the last row of the output sheet
var outputLR =outputsheet.getLastRow();
Logger.log("DEBUG: output last row = "+outputLR);
// defie the output range
var outputrange = outputsheet.getRange((+outputLR+1),1,1,counter);
Logger.log("DEBUG: the output range = "+outputrange.getA1Notation());
// update the values with array
outputrange.setValues(outputval);
// reset the row counter
counter = 0;
//reset the output value array
outputval=[];
}
}
}
Email Input and Output Sheets

Loop not working for column match

I have a loop that work to match row value from bottom and it goes like this:-
var lastRow = s3.getLastRow();
var dataRange = s3.getRange(1, 1,lastRow).getValues();
for(var k=0;k<dataRange.length;k++)
{doing something}
However, I am getting no result when I am trying to do the same thing with column match, here is my loop for column match that does not do anything.
var lastColumn = s3.getLastColumn();
var match2 = s3.getRange(1, 1,lastColumn).getValues();
for (var b = 0; b < match2.length; b++)
{if (range[j][0] == match2[0][b])
{ do something }
}
Please suggest what I am missing.
This is taken right out of the documentation:
getRange(row, column, numRows) Range Returns the range with the top left cell at the given coordinates, and with the given number of rows.

match2.length is the number of rows in the array or the range.
This array [[x,x,x],[y,y,y],[z,z,z]...] has three x's in the first row, 3 y's in the second row and so on. So in s3.getRange(1, 1,lastColumn).getValues(); lastColumn is the number of rows in that range. Essentially it's easier to read each row and then get the column one at a time. Or you could transpose your data like a matrix and then read the columns that are now rows.
A loop looking for "Big Macs':
function myFunction()
{
var ss=SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
var sh=ss.getActiveSheet();
var rg=ss.getRange("A1:Z1");
var vA=rg.getValues();
for(var i=0;i<vA.length;i++)
{
for(j=0;j<vA[0].length;j++)
{
if(vA[i][j]=="Big Mac")
{
SpreadsheetApp.getUi().alert('Do not eat this burger as it has massive amounts of fat in it.');
break;
}
}
}
}
In these two dimensional arrays obtained by commands such as var data = range.getValues(); data.length = the number of rows and data[0].length = the number of columns. So total number of array elements data.length x data[0].length some of which may be null. Many programmers new to Google Apps Scripting have problems in this area. In fact I had a lot of trouble with it so I ended up doing some extra work to help bolster my understanding and you can read about it here.
These arrays look like the following: [[0,1,2,3,4,5...],[0,1,2,3,4,5...],[0,1,2,3,4,5...]...]. So vA is an array of arrays and so the term vA.length is equal to the number of elements in vA and simply put it's also equal to the number rows.

Return row number is match error

I have some tables in one sheet and I need to make a script to send an email everyday. The script it search today date, match it into my table and return column number, then I looks for Total on the first column (A) and once found it, return row number. Once I have row number and column number, return Total value for that day. I'm not advanced with JavaScript and I'm struggle with arrays (still learning). The script I have so far is working very good as long I have only one table on that sheet, but on the sheet will be over 50 tables, each one will have a Total at the end. The formula I have will find Total, but will return all Totals (row numbers) as Strings. What do I need is to get just the first Total (row number). I hope it all make sense.
I have attached an image to make an idea and my script I have so far:
function getTodaysTotal() {
function toDateFormat(date) {
try {return date.setHours(0,0,0,0);}
catch(e) {return;}
}
var values = SpreadsheetApp
.openById("ID")
.getSheetByName("Q3 - W27 - 39")
.getDataRange()
.getValues();
for (i in values){
if (values[i][0]=='Total'){
var nr = i;
Logger.log(nr); // will return two values (41 - first total and
104 second total ... if you add more Total it will return all rows
numbers that contain word Total
}
}
var today = toDateFormat(new Date());
var todaysColumn =
values[5].map(toDateFormat).map(Number).indexOf(+today);
var output = values[nr][todaysColumn];
// Logger.log(output);
var emailDate = Utilities.formatDate(new Date(today),"GMT+1",
"dd/MM/yyyy");
This is just the first table, but there will be more under this one and each one will have a Total.
Thank you!
Kind regards!

You should declare nr outside of your loop since you will use the value.
var nr = 0;
Since you are reading an array, you should use the array length for you loop
for (var i=0; i<values.length; i++){
if (values[i][0]=='Total'){
nr = i;
Logger.log(nr);
break; // this will stop at the first match
}
}
Once you get your total as a String, you can convert it to a number by calling the following function.
var string = values[a][b];
var num = Number(string);

Long processing time likely due to getValue and cell inserts

I've just written my first google apps scripts, ported from VBA, which formats a column of customer order information (thanks to you all of your direction).
Description:
The code identifies state codes by their - prefix, then combines the following first name with a last name (if it exists). It then writes "Order complete" where the last name would have been. Finally, it inserts a necessary blank cell if there is no gap between the orders (see image below).
Problem:
The issue is processing time. It cannot handle longer columns of data. I am warned that
Method Range.getValue is heavily used by the script.
Existing Optimizations:
Per the responses to this question, I've tried to keep as many variables outside the loop as possible, and also improved my if statements. #MuhammadGelbana suggests calling the Range.getValue method just once and moving around with its value...but I don't understand how this would/could work.
Code:
function format() {
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var s = ss.getActiveSheet();
var lastRow = s.getRange("A:A").getLastRow();
var row, range1, cellValue, dash, offset1, offset2, offset3;
//loop through all cells in column A
for (row = 0; row < lastRow; row++) {
range1 = s.getRange(row + 1, 1);
//if cell substring is number, skip it
//because substring cannot process numbers
cellValue = range1.getValue();
if (typeof cellValue === 'number') {continue;};
dash = cellValue.substring(0, 1);
offset1 = range1.offset(1, 0).getValue();
offset2 = range1.offset(2, 0).getValue();
offset3 = range1.offset(3, 0).getValue();
//if -, then merge offset cells 1 and 2
//and enter "Order complete" in offset cell 2.
if (dash === "-") {
range1.offset(1, 0).setValue(offset1 + " " + offset2);
//Translate
range1.offset(2, 0).setValue("Order complete");
};
//The real slow part...
//if - and offset 3 is not blank, then INSERT CELL
if (dash === "-" && offset3) {
//select from three rows down to last
//move selection one more row down (down 4 rows total)
s.getRange(row + 1, 1, lastRow).offset(3, 0).moveTo(range1.offset(4, 0));
};
};
}
Formatting Update:
For guidance on formatting the output with font or background colors, check this follow-up question here. Hopefully you can benefit from the advice these pros gave me :)

Issue:
Usage of .getValue() and .setValue() in a loop resulting in increased processing time.
Documentation excerpts:
Minimize calls to services:
Anything you can accomplish within Google Apps Script itself will be much faster than making calls that need to fetch data from Google's servers or an external server, such as requests to Spreadsheets, Docs, Sites, Translate, UrlFetch, and so on.
Look ahead caching:
Google Apps Script already has some built-in optimization, such as using look-ahead caching to retrieve what a script is likely to get and write caching to save what is likely to be set.
Minimize "number" of read/writes:
You can write scripts to take maximum advantage of the built-in caching, by minimizing the number of reads and writes.
Avoid alternating read/write:
Alternating read and write commands is slow
Use arrays:
To speed up a script, read all data into an array with one command, perform any operations on the data in the array, and write the data out with one command.
Slow script example:
/**
* Really Slow script example
* Get values from A1:D2
* Set values to A3:D4
*/
function slowScriptLikeVBA(){
const ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
const sh = ss.getActiveSheet();
//get A1:D2 and set it 2 rows down
for(var row = 1; row <= 2; row++){
for(var col = 1; col <= 4; col++){
var sourceCellRange = sh.getRange(row, col, 1, 1);
var targetCellRange = sh.getRange(row + 2, col, 1, 1);
var sourceCellValue = sourceCellRange.getValue();//1 read call per loop
targetCellRange.setValue(sourceCellValue);//1 write call per loop
}
}
}
Notice that two calls are made per loop(Spreadsheet ss, Sheet sh and range calls are excluded. Only including the expensive get/set value calls). There are two loops; 8 read calls and 8 write calls are made in this example for a simple copy paste of 2x4 array.
In addition, Notice that read and write calls alternated making "look-ahead" caching ineffective.
Total calls to services: 16
Time taken: ~5+ seconds
Fast script example:
/**
* Fast script example
* Get values from A1:D2
* Set values to A3:D4
*/
function fastScript(){
const ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
const sh = ss.getActiveSheet();
//get A1:D2 and set it 2 rows down
var sourceRange = sh.getRange("A1:D2");
var targetRange = sh.getRange("A3:D4");
var sourceValues = sourceRange.getValues();//1 read call in total
//modify `sourceValues` if needed
//sourceValues looks like this two dimensional array:
//[//outer array containing rows array
// ["A1","B1","C1",D1], //row1(inner) array containing column element values
// ["A2","B2","C2",D2],
//]
//#see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63720612
targetRange.setValues(sourceValues);//1 write call in total
}
Total calls to services: 2
Time taken: ~0.2 seconds
References:
Best practices
What does the range method getValues() return and setValues() accept?

Using methods like .getValue() and .moveTo() can be very expensive on execution time. An alternative approach is to use a batch operation where you get all the column values and iterate across the data reshaping as required before writing to the sheet in one call. When you run your script you may have noticed the following warning:
The script uses a method which is considered expensive. Each
invocation generates a time consuming call to a remote server. That
may have critical impact on the execution time of the script,
especially on large data. If performance is an issue for the script,
you should consider using another method, e.g. Range.getValues().
Using .getValues() and .setValues() your script can be rewritten as:
function format() {
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var s = ss.getActiveSheet();
var lastRow = s.getLastRow(); // more efficient way to get last row
var row;
var data = s.getRange("A:A").getValues(); // gets a [][] of all values in the column
var output = []; // we are going to build a [][] to output result
//loop through all cells in column A
for (row = 0; row < lastRow; row++) {
var cellValue = data[row][0];
var dash = false;
if (typeof cellValue === 'string') {
dash = cellValue.substring(0, 1);
} else { // if a number copy to our output array
output.push([cellValue]);
}
// if a dash
if (dash === "-") {
var name = (data[(row+1)][0]+" "+data[(row+2)][0]).trim(); // build name
output.push([cellValue]); // add row -state
output.push([name]); // add row name
output.push(["Order complete"]); // row order complete
output.push([""]); // add blank row
row++; // jump an extra row to speed things up
}
}
s.clear(); // clear all existing data on sheet
// if you need other data in sheet then could
// s.deleteColumn(1);
// s.insertColumns(1);
// set the values we've made in our output [][] array
s.getRange(1, 1, output.length).setValues(output);
}
Testing your script with 20 rows of data revealed it took 4.415 seconds to execute, the above code completes in 0.019 seconds

Paste values from one sheet to another and remove duplicates

I have two worksheets in my google spreadsheet:
Input data is coming into the Get Data worksheet via the importxml function.
However, I would like to copy all values of the Get Data sheet to the Final Data sheet and if there are duplicates(in terms of rows) append the unique row.
Here is what I tried:
function onEdit() {
//get the data from old Spreadsheet
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.openById("1bm2ia--F2b0495iTJotp4Kv1QAW-wGUGDUROwM9B-D0");
var dataRange = ss.getSheetByName("Get Data").getRange(1, 1, ss.getLastRow(), ss.getLastColumn());
var dataRangeFinalData = ss.getSheetByName("Final Data").getRange(1, 1, ss.getLastRow(), ss.getLastColumn());
var myData = dataRange.getValues();
//Open new Spreadsheet & paste the data
newSS = SpreadsheetApp.openById("1bm2ia--F2b0495iTJotp4Kv1QAW-wGUGDUROwM9B-D0");
Logger.log(newSS.getLastRow());
newSS.getSheetByName("Final Data").getRange(newSS.getLastRow()+1, 1, ss.getLastRow(), ss.getLastColumn()).setValues(myData);
//remove duplicates in the new sheet
removeDups(dataRangeFinalData)
}
function getId() {
Browser.msgBox('Spreadsheet key: ' + SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getId());
}
function removeDups(array) {
var outArray = [];
array.sort(lowerCase);
function lowerCase(a,b){
return a.toLowerCase()>b.toLowerCase() ? 1 : -1;// sort function that does not "see" letter case
}
outArray.push(array[0]);
for(var n in array){
Logger.log(outArray[outArray.length-1]+' = '+array[n]+' ?');
if(outArray[outArray.length-1].toLowerCase()!=array[n].toLowerCase()){
outArray.push(array[n]);
}
}
return outArray;
}
Below you can find the link to a sample spreadsheet:
Sample Sheet
My problem is that the data does not get pasted.
I appreciate your replies!

tl;dr: See script at bottom.
An onEdit() function is inappropriate for your use case, as cell contents modified by spreadsheet functions are not considered "edit" events. You can read more about that in this answer. If you want this to be automated, then a timed trigger function would be appropriate. Alternatively, you could manually invoke the function by a menu item, say. I'll leave that to you to decide, as the real meat of your problem is how to ensure row-level uniqueness in your final data set.
Merging unique rows
Although your original code is incomplete, it appears you were intending to first remove duplicates from the source data, utilizing case-insensitive string comparisons. I'll suggest instead that some other JavaScript magic would help here.
We're interested in uniqueness in our destination data, so we need to have a way to compare new rows to what we already have. If we had arrays of strings or numbers, then we could just use the techniques in How to merge two arrays in Javascript and de-duplicate items. However, there's a complication here, because we have an array of arrays, and arrays cannot be directly compared.
Hash
Fine - we could still compare rows element-by-element, which would require a simple loop over all columns in the rows we were comparing. Simple, but slow, what we would call an O(n2) solution (Order n-squared). As the number of rows to compare increased, the number of unique comparison operations would increase exponentially. So, let's not do that.
Instead, we'll create a separate data structure that mirrors our destination data but is very efficient for comparisons, a hash.
In JavaScript we can quickly access the properties of an object by their name, or key. Further, that key can be any string. We can create a simple hash table then, with an object whose properties are named using strings generated from the rows of our destination data. For example, this would create a hash object, then add the array row to it:
var destHash = {};
destHash[row.join('')] = true; // could be anything
To create our key, we're joining all the values in the row array with no separator. Now, to test for uniqueness of a row, we just check for existence of an object property with an identically-formed key. Like this:
var alreadyExists = destHash.hasOwnProperty(row.join(''));
One additional consideration: since the source data can conceivably contain duplicate rows that aren't yet in the destination data, we need to continuously expand the hash table as unique rows are identified.
Filter & Concatenate
JavaScript provides two built-in array methods that we'll use to filter out known rows, and concatenate only unique rows to our destination data.
In its simple form, that would look like this:
// Concatentate source rows to dest rows if they satisfy a uniqueness filter
var mergedData = destData.concat(sourceData.filter(function (row) {
// Return true if given row is unique
}));
You can read that as "create an array named mergedData that consists of the current contents of the array named destData, with filtered rows of the sourceData array concatenated to it."
You'll find in the final function that it's a little more complex due to the other considerations already mentioned.
Update spreadsheet
Once we have our mergedData array, it just needs to be written into the destination Sheet.
Padding rows: The source data contains rows of inconsistent width, which will be a problem when calling setValues(), which expects all rows to be squared off. This will require that we examine and pad rows to avoid this sort of error:
Incorrect range width, was 6 but should be 5 (line ?, file "Code")
Padding rows is done by pushing blank "cells" at the end of the row array until it reaches the intended length.
for (var col=mergedData[row].length; col<mergedWidth; col++)
mergedData[row].push('');
With that taken care of for each row, we're finally ready to write out the result.
Final script
function appendUniqueRows() {
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
var sourceSheet = ss.getSheetByName('Get Data');
var destSheet = ss.getSheetByName('Final Data');
var sourceData = sourceSheet.getDataRange().getValues();
var destData = destSheet.getDataRange().getValues();
// Check whether destination sheet is empty
if (destData.length === 1 && "" === destData[0].join('')) {
// Empty, so ignore the phantom row
destData = [];
}
// Generate hash for comparisons
var destHash = {};
destData.forEach(function(row) {
destHash[row.join('')] = true; // could be anything
});
// Concatentate source rows to dest rows if they satisfy a uniqueness filter
var mergedData = destData.concat(sourceData.filter(function (row) {
var hashedRow = row.join('');
if (!destHash.hasOwnProperty(hashedRow)) {
// This row is unique
destHash[hashedRow] = true; // Add to hash for future comparisons
return true; // filter -> true
}
return false; // not unique, filter -> false
}));
// Check whether two data sets were the same width
var sourceWidth = (sourceData.length > 0) ? sourceData[0].length : 0;
var destWidth = (destData.length > 0) ? destData[0].length : 0;
if (sourceWidth !== destWidth) {
// Pad out all columns for the new row
var mergedWidth = Math.max(sourceWidth,destWidth);
for (var row=0; row<mergedData.length; row++) {
for (var col=mergedData[row].length; col<mergedWidth; col++)
mergedData[row].push('');
}
}
// Write merged data to destination sheet
destSheet.getRange(1, 1, mergedData.length, mergedData[0].length)
.setValues(mergedData);
}