Clear and Set Conditional Formatting Rules to a Specific Range in Google Sheets with Apps Script

I’ve created a small (pseudo) class that more easily clears and creates conditional formatting rules in a Google Sheet tab with Google Apps Script.

Why?

Well in Google Apps Script, conditional formatting rules are all or nothing.

You can only ever set, get or clear ALL rules in a specified Google Sheet tab.

So if you add a single rule to a sheet tab, all existing rules will be removed.

This means that each time you need to clear a rule or a portion of a rule or add in a new rule, you need to rebuild the entire rule set for that sheet tab.

It is an unpleasant experience.

The script below simplifies this process into some common clear and create processes for your conditional formatting.

Let me know in the comments below if you have a suggestion for another method for the class.

One last thing.

If you want to understand what is going on with the code (You are my kind of peeps), check out the video tutorial series.

The Code: Range_ConditionalFormatting()

To add this script to your own projects, I recommend that you create a new Google Apps Script file (page) and paste the code in there.

Check out the chapters below on how to use the class.

Note! Square brackets around parameters indicate optional parameters.

Class

The pseudo-class Range_ConditionalFormatting(sheet) tales one argument:

Video link: Range_ConditionalFormatting(sheet) 

Methods

Method Return Type
clearRule()
Clears a rule or rules by a single range or array or ranges, based on 3 clearing approaches.
setRule()
Sets a rule or rules while maintaining the existing rules in the Sheet tab.

clearRule(rangeOrRanges, [clearType])

Clears the conditional formatting rules in a Google Sheet tab by the selected range or ranges and clear type while maintaining the existing conditional formatting rules in the Google Sheet tab.

Video link: clearRule method

Parameters

Name Optional Type Description
rangeOrRanges Range or Range Array A SpreadsheetApp.Range or array of ranges that will be the target locations to clear.
clearType Number The way the method should clear the range (see below)

Default is clearType = 0

Clear types

  • 0 – Clears any conditional formatting rule that exactly matches the range.
  • 1 – Clears any conditional formatting rule that has a range within the target range.
  • 2 – Clears any conditional formatting rule or portions of the range of a rule that overlap the target range.

Examples

clearRule(range) – Single range and no optional clear type

Clears a conditional formatting range that exactly matches the single range provided.

Video link: clearRule(ranges) – Ranges and no optional clear type

clearRule(ranges) – Multiple ranges and no optional clear type

Clears the conditional formatting that exactly matches multiple ranges.

 

clearRule(range, clearType = 0) – Single range with clear type zero- Exact match

Clears a conditional formatting range that exactly matches the array of ranges provided. Clear type zero (0) is the default clear type.

Video link: clearRule(ranges, 0) – Exact match

clearRule(ranges, clearType = 0) – Multiple ranges with clear type zero – Exact match

Clears the conditional formatting that exactly matches multiple ranges.

clearRule(range, clearType = 1) – Single range with clear type one – Within range

Clears a conditional formatting rule range that has a range equal to or within the target range.

Video link: clearRule(ranges, 1) – Within range

clearRule(ranges, clearType = 1) – Multiple ranges with clear type zero- Within range

Clears all conditional formatting rule ranges equal to or within the target array of ranges.

clearRule(range, clearType = 2) – Single range with clear type one – Overlaps

Clears a conditional formatting rule range that has a range equal to or within the target range or rebuilds the range where any range overlaps the target range removing that portion of the range.

Video link: clearRule(ranges, 2) – Overlapping ranges

clearRule(ranges, clearType = 2) – Multiple ranges with clear type zero- Overlaps

Clears all conditional formatting rule ranges equal to or within the target array of ranges or rebuilds the range where any range overlaps the target range removing that portion of the range.

setRule(rules, [position])

The setRule method adds a conditional formatting rule or rules to an existing Google Sheet tab. It does not remove any existing rules in the selected tab.

The method has an optional position parameter that allows the user to customise where they wish to order the rule in relation to the existing rules on the Sheet tab.

Video link: setRule method

Parameters

Name Optional Type Description
rules Conditional Formatting Rules A

array of objects. This is an array of rules built with the Apps Script conditional formatting rule builder.

position Number The position of the new rule in the existing set of rules.

Default is position = -1, or the bottom of the rules array.

A position of zero (0) sets the rule to the top of the array set.

Positive numbers apply position up to max length of the rule set.

-1 for end of the rule

Rules with negative numbers are position from the last rule in reverse order up to zero.

Examples

Video Tutorial Series

You can check out the playlist for Conditional formatting here.

Apps Script – Google Sheets Conditional Formatting Playlist

The video tutorials:

  1. Clear Conditional Formatting Rules by Exact Match in Google Sheets with Apps Script
  2. Clear Conditional Formatting Rules Within a Range in Google Sheets with Apps Script
  3. Clear Conditional Formatting Rules that Overlap a Target Range in Google Sheets with Apps Script
  4. Add Conditional Formatting Rules to a Google Sheet Tab with Apps Script

Conclusion

Being such a short pseudo-class it is hardly worth slowing down your script by making this into a library. I recommend you just add it to your existing project for simplicity and performance.

If you think there are any other methods worth adding, please let me know in the comments.

I would also love to hear how you used this in your own projects.

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~Yagi.