If you have ever tried to get a list of all the child files and folders of a parent folder in Google Drive, you’ve no doubt discovered that it is a slow old process. Iterating over each item in a folder and then reading the metadata of that file or folder before calling the next one can take forever!
The built-in DriveApp Class for Google Apps Script is great for working on a small number of files and folders but it just doesn’t have the functionality to retrieve specific fields in your metadata, nor does the searchFiles method or searchFolders method have the ability to isolate just the fields that you want to retrieve. Subsequently, your processing time increases significantly as it ships junk data.
This tutorial is my attempt at, as the kiddies say today, creating a ‘blazingly fast’ file and folder iterator with Google’s Drive API v2 for Apps Script.
Using the Spreadsheet App Class’ Text Finder Class to find and hide rows in Google Sheets containing target text in a cell can be a fast way to hide values. In many situations, this may be a faster way to hide rows based on cell value in Google Sheets with Google Apps Script than iterating through a range and extracting rows.
In this tutorial, we will cover 3 approaches to using the Text Finder class to hide rows. Each may be useful in its own circumstances.
This tutorial accompanies the YouTube video series of the same name. You can find the links to each of the related videos in each of the sections along with the starter Google Sheets so that you can play along.
V1 – Basic Find and Hide Rows based on cell values in Google Sheets
Unlike when formatting rows and cell activation, – as we did in the previous tutorial – our fasted approach here is to hide and unhide sheets while looping through all the found cells.
In this basic approach, our function contains 3 parameters:
text – The text to search.
sheetName – The sheet name to search.
isHide – An optional argument set to true by default to hide values or false manually to unhide them.
Lines 10-11 – We first collected our current Google Sheet workbook and then select the sheet tab we will be working in.
Lines 13-14 – Then we use the Text Finder class in the Spreadsheets App to search for our target text and then use the findAll() method to get an array constructor of all the found value cell ranges. You can learn more about this in the first tutorial in this series here:
Line 17 – On each iteration, we collect the row number. We do the same thing here in our previous tutorial when activating and formatting entire rows.
Lines 19-23 – Lastly we need to check if the user has set isHide to false to show the rows or true (or not used) to hide the row. We then call the sheet and apply either the Spreadsheets Apps Hide Rows (hideRows()) method or (showRows()) Show Rows method. These methods can take a single row as an argument. We provide this with the row variable.
This is a quick and easy solution to understand. However, it does not perform well with a large dataset. It will also try and hide rows multiple times when a found cell is on the same row as a previously found cell.
The function, just like the other two examples, can be called from another function with:
// If the the current row is the same as the previous. Skip this row.
return;
}elseif(lastRowRangeRow===row){
// If the next row number is equal to the sum of the start row and number of rows to count.
++rowRange.numRows;
// If this is the last row in the range
if(idx===allOccurrences.length-1){
hideRange(rowRange);
};
}else{
// If the new row is not part of the previous range.
hideRange(rowRange);
rowRange.startRow=row;
rowRange.numRows=1;
// If this is the last row in the range
if(idx===allOccurrences.length-1){
hideRange(rowRange);
};
}
})
SpreadsheetApp.flush();
};
In larger, ranges we might have a lot of situations where our found text is on multiple adjacent rows.
In the image above, we can see that rows 30 and 31, 38-43, and 46-49 can all be batched together into a single range.
Furthermore, rows with the found text (Koala) on the same row can be ignored, the consecutive times that they are found.
Let’s go ahead and fix our code to make it more efficient.
Note that lines 9-16 of the code are the same as the previous function. Refer to this for an explanation.
The Hide Range METHOD
Line 22 – After we have collected our ranges of found rows we will create a hideRange() method. This will either hide or show the range based on the isHide argument.
This function takes a single object parameter that contains a start row and a number of rows.
Lines 24 – 26 – Unlike the previous version, we use the Hide Rows and Show Rows extra parameter to include the number of rows deep to hide.
Row Range variable
Lines 32 – 35 – This mutable variable stores the start row and row depth as we collected each range of rows to hide in our sheet.
Iterate through all cells
Line 37 – Here, we start the forEach loop that iterates through each found cell range. We include the index (idx) in our arguments in our arrow function as well here.
Line 39 – Next, we grab the row number with the Get Row (getRow()) method.
Line 40 – Then we get the next possible row in the current range collection by adding the start row with the row depth. This will be used in a moment ot compare against the currently iterated row.
On the first iteration
Lines 42-46 – On our first loop through our found cells, all we need to do is add our first found row and add one to our depth.
There is another cell on the same row
Lines 47-51 – If there is another cell on the same row, then we don’t need to do anything and we simply return the function for that iteration.
There is a cell directly below the previous one
Lines 52-55 – If the next found row is only one cell down (adjacent), then we just want to add one to the number of rows of the existing rowRange variable.
Lines 57-60 – If the row is the last found row, then we can run the hideRange function on our update range set.
A new range begins
If the next found row is not directly below the previous one. We need to:
Line 63 – Run the hideRange on the current rowRange variable set.
Lines 65-66 – Reset the rowRange variable adding in the current row to the start range and one to the depth.
Lines 69-71 – Again, if we are on the last found row, we can just run hideRow to end the loop.
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I found version two to be remarkably efficient. However, if you want to do a lot of editing to the sheet tab then you might want to consider using the Google Apps Script Advanced Sheet Service API.
hideAllRowsWithVal_v3
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/**
* Hide or unhide all rows that contains the selected value.
* Single sheet
* Uses Google Sheets Advanced Service Batch Update.
* @param {string} text - the text to find.
* @param {string} sheetName - the target sheet.
* @param {boolean} [isHide] - True to hide false to show.
We need to add a few more variables to our main variables here.
Line 12 – We will need to get the spreadsheet ID to use in our batch update.
Line 13 – The sheet name does not work the same as an identifier in the advanced service, so we will need to extract the sheet ID too.
A request list
Line 21 – The Sheets batch request property requires a list of requests as its value. Here we will store an array of all the requests that we want to batch together to hide each row range of the Google Sheet.
Update Dimension Properties
Line 27 – The appendRequest(setRange) function pushes a new request to the requests property.
When hiding and displaying rows or columns in a Google Sheet with the Advanced Service we are updating a dimension property. These properties can be a number of different field types, but for us, we want to hide rows.
Let’s take another look at the layout of this JSON object:
Update Dimension Properties
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{
'updateDimensionProperties':{
"range":{
"sheetId":sheetId,
"dimension":'ROWS',
"startIndex":setRange.startRow-1,
"endIndex":setRange.endRow,
},
"properties":{
"hiddenByUser":isHide,
},
"fields":'hiddenByUser',
}
}
Lines 3-8 – The first sub-property is the range object. This object requires a sheet ID. The dimension is either the columns or rows.
Then we need to set the start index. Note that the cell ranges will start from zero instead of 1. We must then subtract 1 from our start row to get the correct start index of our row range.
Finally, we set the end row. This will be one row after our desired end row. Think, ‘up to, but not including this row’.
Lines 9-11 – Next, we identify the property that we want to change. For hiding and showing rows this is the "hiddenByUser" property, where the value is a boolean. This conveniently fits with our ishide parameter.
Line 12 – Weirdly, we then need to declare that we are using the "hiddenByUser" property by adding it to the fields list.
Store the current row range
Lines 46-49 – Just like the previous version, we need to store each range before sending it to appendRequest(). Unlike the previous version, our last property is the end row rather than the number of rows.
Starting the loop
Lines 52-54 –Now we can commence our loop through the found cells.
Here, the first task is to collect all the row numbers.
On the first iteration
Lines 56-60 – On the first loop of our cell array, we just want to add the current row number to the start and end row of rowRange.
If the next row is on the same row
Lines 61 – 65 – If we have more than one result on the same row we want to ignore it and return the current loop.
If its the next row below
Line 69 – We add one to our end row value in rowRange.
Lines 72-74 – If we are on our last found row, send it to appendRequest().
Create a new row range
Line 77 – If the current row is not the next row down then we send appendRequest() with our current rowRange.
Lines 79-80 – Next, we create a new rowRange.
Line 83-85 – If the current row is the last row in the array, we sent it to appendRequest().
The Batch request
Line 90. Here we use the batch request of the spreadsheet resource. The batch request takes an object with a requests property. This property, in turn, requires an array of JSON object requests.
For its second argument, we reference the Spreadsheet ID.
Some notes
If you know that there may not be any matches in your text finder then you might wish to add a return agent after the allOccurrences variable:
if(allOccurences.length === 0) return;
Another good measure might be to use a try/catch statement in the third version when running the batch call, just in case there is an error with the API server.
Just like when using the Ctrl + F shortcut in Google Sheets to find values in your spreadsheet, there is a class in Google Apps Script that can do the same thing.
This could be a useful tool as a part of an automation process. For example, finding the location of a value and applying formatting to it or copying the cell’s entire data into a separate location if the value is a part of a larger text in the cell.
Note that for the video tutorials, I have added the variables (e.g. the Sheet Name, Range) inside each function. It is usually good practice to keep these functions independent and call them from other functions. This makes them more reusable.
Instead, we can add the variables we need as parameters for the functions and return the result. See the example below:
Converting to a reusable function
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/**
* Activate all values in a range.
* @param {string} text - the text to search for.
* @param {string} sheetName - The name of the selected sheet.
* @returns {array} Location cell of each selection.
In these examples, we use the findAll method of this class. This will return an array containing all the cells containing the selected value searched. From here, you can treat each cell as a range and call range methods like:
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A mate reached out to me last week asking if there was a way to monitor the times any article in a Google Sheet list goes through an editing stage before being published. From there, he wanted to report the number of edits on the article in an adjacent cell.
Take a look at the example:
As you can see in the example, whenever “NEEDS EDIT” is selected from the dropdown menu, then the counter column for the selected row item is updated automatically.
In this tutorial, we will cover how to create this for a single Google Sheet tab or for multiple selected tabs. I’ll also wrap up with a script to calculate just the aggregate count of changes to all the rows in the selected range and report it in a single cell.
Check out the video tutorial that covers the basics and grab the Starter Sheet to play along:
Everything starts with the onEdit(e) simple trigger. This is a special trigger in Google Apps Script called a Simple Trigger that will run every time you edit your Google Sheet. If Apps Script sees the onEdit() function in your project it runs automatically.
Every time onEdit() is executed, it will retrieve an event parameter that is commonly referenced as "e" (onEdit(e)). The event object can return things like:
The current value
The previous value
The edited range
The source spreadsheet
The trigger id
The authorisation mode
We will be using a few of these in our code below.
Unless you have a very short coding task, it is generally good practice to reference another function that will be executed when onEdit() is run rather than coding directing within the onEdit() function.
Take a look at the three examples I added for my test project for this tutorial:
onEdit()
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functiononEdit(e){
countTimesSpecificCellValSelected_v1_(e);// Count each row in a single col
countTimesSpecificCellValSelected_v2_(e);// Count for multiple Sheet Tabs
First, let’s assign all our variables at the top of our function to make it easier for us to change should we need to down the track.
We have 3 variables that we need to include here. They won’t change so we will make them a constant variable:
tgtSheet – This is the target sheet tab name. For our example, this is assigned to “Single List”.
tgtCol – This is the target column or the column that has the values that will need to be monitored for changes. In our example, this is the status column, column 3.
counterCol – This is the column where we display our change count. For us, this is column 4, but it could be any selected column in the sheet.
Numbers correspond to the points above.
You can stop here if you want to copy and paste the script into your own project and update the variables for your own purposes. Or continue to learn how it all works.
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We don’t want to end up counting the wrong column or updating a completely different sheet tab by mistake. This means we need a way to check if we are in the right spot.
The first thing we need to do is check the range we are currently editing. This can be done by grabbing the range object in our event parameter. Line 33
Using the JavaScript ‘if’ statement we first check that the sheets name (sheet.getName()) is equal to our assigned target sheet name and if it is, then check that the selected column is equal to the target column. Line 38
Update the Counter Cell
Lines 40 – 48
We need to update the adjacent counter cell in the same row that was changed when edited.
Next, using the sheet variable we created earlier we can call the getRange() method to get the counter cell. For a single cell, this method can take two variables the row and the column number. Here, we add in these two variables we collected earlier.
Now we need to add one to the current count in our counter cell. This means that we first need to collect the current value in the cell, which we do with the getValue() method.
We need a way to check if the value in the counter cell is empty. If it is then we want to give it a value of 1 otherwise we want to add 1 to the current value.
First off, we need to store a target value that we want to monitor for and if that value appears add one to our counter cell. Here on line 29, we set our target value to “NEEDS EDIT”.
const tgtVal = "NEEDS EDIT"
You can change this to the value that you need for your project.
Next, we need to check if the cell that was edited was edited to the new target value before we update the counter cell.
To do this we first get the value of the selected range (Line 42):
const cellVal = range.getValue();
Then we create an if statement checking that the cell value matches the target value on line 43 and closes on line 54. if(cellVal === tgtVal){
Apply The Script to Multiple Selected Google Sheets
What if we have different editorial teams or genres handled by different editors? We might want to put the data for each team in a different sheet tab to make it easy for monitoring. Here we will need to check all the selected sheets for any changes.
In our example now we want the “Team 1” and “Team 2” sheet tabs. Both tabs are identical in format.
Let’s see how our code works now:
countTimesSpecificCellValSelected_v2_(e)
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/**
* @OnlyCurrentDoc
*/
/**
* Simple trigger function that runs after each change in the sheet.
*/
functiononEdit(e){
countTimesSpecificCellValSelected_v2_(e);// Count for multiple Sheet Tabs
};
/**
* Counts the number of times a cell value is change to a specfic item
* from a dropdown in a specified column for selected sheets and displays
* the count in the selected adjacent column.
* @param {Object} e - The event object from the onEdit trigger event.
*/
functioncountTimesSpecificCellValSelected_v2_(e){
// ### VARIABLES ###
// Update these
consttgtSheets=["Team 1","Team 2"];// The sheet names the data is on.
consttgtCol=3;// The column to search for a change.
constcounterCol=4;// The column to update the counter.
consttgtVal="NEEDS EDIT"
// ### --- ###
constrange=e.range
constsheet=range.getSheet();
constcolumn=range.getColumn();
// check if on the correct sheet and in the correct column.
On line 25, we need to change the tgtSheet variable to tgtSheets and include an array of all the Google Sheet tabs we need to monitor with our Apps Script code.
const tgtSheets = ["Team 1", "Team 2"]; // The sheet names the data is on.
Then on line 38, we need to replace the first part of the if statement with a way that will look through our array of sheets and check if the current sheet contains the selected name.
This can be achieved with the JavaScript includes function. This function appends a selected array (In our case, the target sheets array) and takes a target value as an argument. Our target value is the select sheet that this being edited.
... tgtSheets.includes(sheet.getName()) ...
Get the Aggregate Count of the Changes
This final script checks all the cells in the target column in a single Google Sheet tab and checks if they have been changed to “NEEDS EDIT”. Then records the aggregate count of all the cells in a single counter cell in a separate sheet tab.
In our example, we will monitor the “Single List” sheet tab for our desired change and record the total count of changes for all rows in the “Aggregate” sheet tab.
Check out the code:
countTimesSpecificCellValSelected_v3_(e)
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/**
* @OnlyCurrentDoc
*/
/**
* Simple trigger function that runs after each change in the sheet.
First, we have replaced the counterCol variable with the counterCell variable and set that to cell A2 of the ‘Aggregate’ sheet tab.
const counterCell = 'Aggregate!A2'; // The column to update the counter.
Next, we don’t need to get the row number this time so we have deleted this variable.
Lastly, on line 44, we use the source property of the event (e) object to grab the current spreadsheet. This allows us to use the getRange() method to select our counter cell.
Conclusion
There should be enough samples there for you to work out your own combinations. If you want to test your new skills out, try to:
Create an aggregate count of multiple sheet tabs.
Move the counter column to another location in the sheet.
Check for different target values in different sheets with different locations.
If you get stuck check out some of the other popular tutorials on using onEdit():
It’s always nice to hear how people use these scripts in their own projects and it can be inspiring to share your use cases with others. Feel free to share your experience and examples in the comments below.
Finally a big thanks to Mike Kanert for the inspiration for this post. Editor, writer, artist, actor, educator, polymath and all-around nice fella, you can find Mike on Instagram @Unremarkable_Us for his latest comic series made by parents for parents:
In this tutorial, we will cover creating a custom Table of Contents that lists your Google Sheets tabs on its own tab using Google Apps Script. This Table of Contents (TOC) will update whenever you open your sheet or choose to update it with a button.
But Yagi! Can’t I just check the list of tabs from the All Sheets button in the bottom right or scroll across bottom list of tabs until I find what I need?
Sure you can, but sometimes the sheet tab name just doesn’t properly explain what is in your sheet. There is a word limit to the tags and that bottom tab bar will get awfully cluttered if you start creating verbose tags. 🐐
On most of your sheets, you will probably have a title or description perhaps on the first row. This will probably more accurately detail what is occurring. You might also have some universal details that you have on all your sheets that you want to display on your table of contents tab.
Finally, you might only want certain tabs to be in your Table of Contents.
Note! As always, read as much as you need or settle in to read the whole thing.
Features
Our code contains the following features:
Generate a table of contents on a separate sheet tab. Any time we create a new sheet tab it will be added to our table of contents either on the next load of the Google Sheet or manually when editors of the sheet click a button.
Sort the sheet tabs alphabetically. So that your users have an easily indexable list. The can be removed.
Dedicated ‘Notes’ Sheet Tab for you to easily edit to change how you want your Table of Contents to be displayed. Make changes to how you want your Table of Contents to look right inside your Google Sheet.
Choose the location cell of your tab titles. Assign what cell your titles are going to be in.
Identify what Sheet Tabs you don’t want to be included in your Table of Contents. You might not want to share all of your tabs, right? For example, it seems a little silly to share your Table of Contents tab.
Optional addition of your Sheet Tab name included in the TOC.
There will be a bunch of example Sheet Tabs already there for you. Just go to File > Make a copy. Then open the Google Apps Script Editor (Extensions > App Script).
The Code
Code.gs
Code.gs
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//############# GLOBALS ##################
constNOTES_SHEET="Notes";
/**
* Google Apps Script trigger that runs each time the sheet is opened.
*/
functiononOpen(){
updateTOC();
};
/**
* Updates the Table of Contents (TOC)
*
* Searches the sheet tabs and if the shet is not on the excluded list,
* it will add it to the TOC.
* It will then publish it on the assigned page.
*
* Requires a dedicated "Notes" google sheet with a set of input boxes.
*
*/
functionupdateTOC(){
constSS=SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
constSS_ID=SS.getId();
constTOC_vars=getVariables(SS);// Get the object of values drawn from the 'Notes' sheet tab.
//Set the Table of Contents to active sheet (focus to this sheet)
Enter in all of your extra Sheet Tabs. Or as many as you have. You can always add more and your sheet will update your Table of Contents (TOC) next time the sheet opens.
Enter all of your parameters for your TOC (more on this in a bit) in the Notes sheet tab and click the button to run the code for the first time and go through the process of accepting permissions to run the code if you are happy with it.
Make a copy of the Notes tab data. Create a Notes tab and paste it into the exact same location.
Right-click on the Notestab of the Template Google Sheet. Select Copy to > Existing spreadsheet. Then search for the current Google Sheet you are working in.
Click to expand!
Then copy the Google Apps Script code above and paste it into your code editor.
What if I want to put the Notes setup in another place?
If you want to put the setup data in another Google Sheets tap, you will need to update the NOTES_SHEET variable on line 2 of the Code.gs file.
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//############# GLOBALS ##################
constNOTES_SHEET="Notes";
If you want to move the setup data to start at a different cell you will need to scroll down to the getVariables() function and update the following line:
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...
.getRange("A1:B31")
...
Ensure that the range is 30 rows deep and 2 rows wide and you will be good.
Completing the Setup Data in the Notes Sheet Tab
All grey areas indicate the places you need to fill out. There are instructions for each part. If you need an example, hove over the input fields and a note will popup with an example.
1. Select the location of your Title
All of your sheets will probably have the exact same location of their Title. Here you will provide the cell. If the title is merged over multiple cells, select the first cell in the top-left.
An example of a valid input would be, A2 or B4.
2. Do you want to add the sheet tab name to your Table of Contents?
You can essentially choose to display your table of contents with a counter and the title:
Or include the Sheet Tab name as a third row.
Having the sheet tab name can be really handy if you want to create other columns of data for your Table of Contents using the INDIRECT Google Sheets function. Take a look at this example:
Click to Expand!
Here is the formula, have a try yourself if you are playing along:
=IF(C3="","",INDIRECT(C3&"!A2"))
Check out this example sheet where we have added the name and students who have grades remaining to the TOC.
3. When a TOC link is clicked where should we navigate to?
You can choose what cell you want your uses to be navigated to when they click the link in the TOC.
You might not always want your users to go straight to cell A1. Perhaps you want to get them to work straight away and navigate them to the first cell of the data they need to enter say, cell B6 for example.
4. Name the Sheet Tab Where you are storing your TOC.
This will automatically be set to Contents, but you might want to call it TOC or list, or something.
Note that this will automatically update cell A20 so that it is excluded from the contents. If you are feeling a little eccentric then you can delete this.
5. The start row of the TOC
Choose the row that your Table of Contents, including the headers, will go. You might want to give your contents sheet tab a title so you may wish to indicate row 2 here.
6. Excluding sheets
You can list all the sheet tabs you want to be excluded here. the TOC sheet and the Notes tab is in by default but you can add up to 12 sheets you want to be excluded.
This might be useful for hidden sheets or sheet that don’t follow the Title pattern.
7. Run the code
To generate the TOC for the first time, run the code and got through the permission process. you will only have to do this once.
If you add more sheet tabs you can either click the button again or reload the page.
That’s all there is to set up your own Table of Contents for your Google Sheet. If you want to dive into the code with me, head down to the next chapter. If you are happy with this free tool, hit the like button and subscribe. Finally, donations help keep this site alive and reduce the ads I need to put on here. If you want to donate and support me there is a button up in the top-right of the sidebar.
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Not much going on in the Global Variables. If you have your Table of Contents (TOC) setting in another sheet then you will need to update this.
onOpen()
onoOpen
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/**
* Google Apps Script trigger that runs each time the sheet is opened.
*/
functiononOpen(){
updateTOC();
};
The onOpen() function is a reserved custom trigger in Google Apps Script. It can take one argument commonly notated as efor the event. For us, we do not need the event argument so we have left it out.
As its name suggests the onOpen() trigger runs when the document is first loaded. The function’s only task is to run the updateTOC() trigger.
It is generally a good practice to not bloat these custom trigger. Instead, use them to refer to functions that complete specific tasks.
updateTOC()
This is the main driving function. It will review the setup details for the TOC and then collect all the Google Sheet tab excluding the ones indicated. Then it will add the table of contents to the assigned sheet and then sort it.
Acquiring the main variables
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...
constSS=SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
constSS_ID=SS.getId();
constTOC_vars=getVariables(SS);// Get the object of values drawn from the 'Notes' sheet tab.
We will need the unique ID of the spreadsheet to create our URL to link to other parts of the Google Sheet. Fortunately, we can do that easily with the getId() method. (Line 3)
Finally, we need to collect all the values that have been submitted in the TOC settings block found in the Notes. This is done with the getVariables(SS) function. This function takes the current spreadsheet object as an argument and returns an object containing something like the following example: (Line 4)
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{
cellLoc:'A1',
sheetTabName:true,
navTo:'A1',
tocName:'Contents',
tocStart:'2',
exclude:[
'Contents',
'Notes',
'Example'
]
}
Loading the sheet on the Table of contents tab
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//Set the Table of Contents to active sheet (focus to this sheet)
You’ll probably want your Google Sheet to open onto your Table of Contents each time. You can do this with the setActiveSheet() method that takes the sheet identifier.
Inside the brackets, you can see that we are using the getSheetByName() method to grab our selected sheet by calling on the TOC_vars object’s tocName key. In our example, we are referencing the Contents sheet tab.
If you don’t want the spreadsheet to open on your TOC you can comment this out or change the name of the sheet to your desired sheet tab name.
Set up the container variable that will store the TOC
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...
//Set up headers depending on if user selects to add the Sheet tab or not.
let TOC_list=(TOC_vars.sheetTabName)?[["#","Title","Sheet Name"]]:[["#","Title"]];
let count=0;// This is to add a serial number to the list.
...
In our TOC setting, we give you the option to include the Sheet Tab Name as well as the title and reference number.
We use a Javascript ternary operator to first check if the tick box has been selected. If it has, we add the reference number, title and sheet name headers and store it in our TOC_list variable. If it hasn’t we only store the reference number and title headers. (Line 3)
To create our reference number, we will add a count variable and set it to zero. (Line 5)
Looping through all the Google Sheets
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...
//Loop through all sheet tabs and select the title from each.
SS.getSheets().forEach(sheet=>{
let sheetName=sheet.getName();
if(!TOC_vars.exclude.includes(sheetName)){
let title=sheet.getRange(TOC_vars.cellLoc).getValue();
let sheetID=sheet.getSheetId();
...
Our first task is to iterate through all the sheet tabs. We can get a list of sheets using the getSheets() method. From there, we can apply the forEach JavaScript method to iterate through each sheet. (Line 3)
The forEach() method runs a function for each element in the array. We set sheet as our iterator variable.
The first task is to grab the sheet name from each sheet and store it in the sheetName variable. (Line 5)
As we look at each sheet name, we need to check it against our list of sheet tabs we want to exclude from our TOC. This is done on line 7 with an if statement that says that if the current sheet name is not included, or present, in our list of excluded sheet tabs, then continue with adding it to our table of contents.
We use the very fancy includes JavaScript method here to check if our current sheet exists in the list of excluded tab. Note the ! at the start which can be described as ‘not’ but more formally it means that we are looking for a false report on our if statement.
Next, we grab the title by using the getRange() Google Apps Script method to find the cell with the title in the currently iterated sheet. The location of the title is drawn from the TOC_vars.cellLoc value. The getRange() method can take, among other arguments A1notation to find a range. In our example, this is cell A1.
Lastly, we grab the sheet id. We will use this in a moment to create our sheet tab link.
Creating the link URL to each sheet tab
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//Get the link to the sheet.
let sheetCellURL=`https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/${SS_ID}/edit#gid=${sheetID}&range=${TOC_vars.navTo}`;
let hyperlink=`=HYPERLINK("${sheetCellURL}","${title}")`;
...
We’ll be making use of the Google Sheet HYPERLINK function to create a link for the title for each sheet. This function takes two arguments. The URL and the label for the URL. (Line 4)
Above this line, we will build the URL. There are three key points that we make modifications to the URL that you can see in the curly braces (${}).
The SS_IDis the unique spreadsheet ID for the current document.
The sheetID is the unique ID number for the sheet tab.
The TOC_vars.navTo is the cell where we want to direct the user to in the sheet.
Adding the count, title/link (and sheet name)
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count++
//Add sheet tab data and count depending on whether user chose to add the Sheet Tab name
if(TOC_vars.sheetTabName){
TOC_list.push([count,hyperlink,sheetName]);
}else{
TOC_list.push([count,hyperlink]);
};
...
After we first increase our count by one (Line 2) we then need to add the count, the title connected to our link and if we chose to add the sheet name, well… we add the sheet name. 🙄
Line 5sif statement checks if the user selected the sheet tab name. If they did we push the count, hyperlink and sheet name to the TOC_list. Otherwise, we just push the count and the hyperlink. (Lines 5-9)
We will soon be pasting in our table of contents, but first, we will need to determine how deep our data is in rows and how wide it is. (Lines 6 & 7)
Just in case you delete out some Sheet tabs we want to make sure that you have a clean page, so we initially clear out the content. First, we grab the range with getRange() this time using 4 number parameters: (Line 8)
Row Start
Column Start
Row height
Col width
We have made the row height 100. It would be rare that you had more than 100 sheet tabs worth of rows in your TOC but you can always update this. Google is vague about the limit of sheet tabs.
Then we append the clearContent() method that clears the data from the range but not the formatting.
Finally, grab the range of the Table of Contents sheet again this time using our row height gathered from the length of the array. We then use setValues() to input our array of TOC into our sheet.
Our last task is to sort our table of contents. This is an optional step and you can comment out these two lines if you don’t want to use it.
We want to make sure that our data is loaded into our Google Sheet before we sort it or we might have an error or the sort might be skipped entirely. This is called accounting for Race Conditions. This is done by applying the flush() method straight from the SpreadsheetApp class. (Line 2)
Next, we want to grab the row below our newly added header and then all the listed sheet tabs. We add the Google Apps Script sort() method to this which for us takes a single argument, sort ascending by the 2nd across. (Line 3)
getVariables()
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/**
* Acquires the user preferences for the TOC from the 'Notes' Google Sheet.
*
* @param {object} SS - the SpreadSheet App object.
* @return {object} = an object containing.
*/
functiongetVariables(SS){
constvals=SS.getSheetByName(NOTES_SHEET)
.getRange("A1:B31")
.getValues();
//Assign input from 'Notes' tab to keys.
constdataReferences={
cellLoc:vals[3][1],
sheetTabName:vals[6][1],
navTo:vals[9][1],
tocName:vals[12][1],
tocStart:vals[15][1],
exclude:(()=>{
return(vals.slice(19)
.map((row)=>row[0])
.filter((row)=>row!==""))
})()
}
returndataReferences;
};
The getVariables() function takes the spreadsheet as an argument and returns an object, for example:
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{
cellLoc:'A1',
sheetTabName:true,
navTo:'A1',
tocName:'Contents',
tocStart:'2',
exclude:[
'Contents',
'Notes',
'Example'
]}
The functions first task is to grab the range of Table of Contents settings data. First, it grabs the sheet by its name (Line 8).
Then it grabs the range. You can change this range value if you put the settings range in a different spot. Just make sure it is 2 columns wide and 30 rows deep. (Line 9)
Next, we grab the values of the settings range with the getValues method. (Line 10)
We then create the dataReference object and assign our setting values to our sheet. Each location is in a 2d array and we draw them out of our vals array by first referencing the row and then the column: (Lines 13-23)
vals[row][column]
To get our list of excluded sheet tabs we run an Immediately Invoked Function Expression (IIFE)(Line 19). First, we slice our vals array from row 19 onwards (Line 20). We then use the map method to iterate through the remaining rows selecting only the first column (Line 21). Finally, we filter out all the empty rows ( Line 22)
The dataReference object is then returned to updateTOC() function. Line 25
Conclusion
Creating a table of contents in a tab of your Google Sheet is pretty useful for your users to be able to quickly navigate to what sheet tab they need. I hope that after reviewing the code you can make some changes for your own project.
If you have been playing along, you might have noticed that there is no data validation to ensure the received TOC settings are correct. I kinda thought adding this extra level of complexity would detract from what I was trying to achieve in the tutorial portion of this post.
However, running some validation either Google Sheets-side with Data Validation or inside your Google Apps Script will help reduce errors, but to be honest, not many folks are going to have access to the settings and those that do will probably figure out the error.
I was compelled to write this post based on interest in my Table of Contents from my previous post on using Google Sheets as a recipe folder. Check it out:
I would love to hear how you applied this Table of Contents creator in your own project. Feel free to comment below.
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