Google Sheets – Yagisanatode

Google Apps Script – Copy Selected Columns in One Sheet and Add Them To The Bottom of Different Selected Columns in Another

I recently had a legend (a.k.a reader) ask about how to copy selected columns from one sheet and append them to the bottom of different selected columns in another sheet.

To me, this seemed like a pretty common task that one might face, so in response I decided to create a template function to easily do this and reuse on the same project or in other projects.

But first, let’s take a look a the problem a bit more.

We want:

the freedom to select any number of columns from one sheet.
to select the same number of different columns from the sheet we want to paste to.
to paste to the bottom (append) the receiving sheet.
to take into account varying header row heights.
to have a “Completed” or “Copied” column in our origin sheet so that we don’t continue to paste all the data instead of simply what has been updated.
have the data with formulas that we only want to paste the values for.

The Example

Let’s say we have a sheet that is updated regularly and we want to be able to paste data from columns A,B and C of this source sheet and append it to columns C,E and A of the destination Sheet.

Copy Sheet 1 Col A -> Append Sheet 2 Col C
Copy Sheet 1 Col B -> Append Sheet 2 Col E
Copy Sheet 1 Col C -> Append Sheet 2 Col A

Take a look at our two Google Sheets

You can see in the Source Sheet (Sheet1) that we have 3 data columns and one column market To Copy. The To Copy column will be updated with “Copied” once the code is run successfully.

In the Destination Sheet (Sheet2) you can see that we already have some data there. We don’t want to overwrite it. We simply want to append our data to the bottom of it.

Google Sheets – Remove The Lowest Grade for Each Student on a Course

Google Sheets – MIN, FILTER, INDEX, MATCH, SUM, COUNTIF

In the region of the world that I work in, it is a pretty common occurrence for university courses to run weekly assessment. At the end of the course all the weekly assessment is then added together minus the lowest piece of assessment.

For lecturers with small course sizes this is a pretty simple task that you could simply eyeball if you have a small enough group, but what if your course runs into the thousands with half a dozen tests to choose from. Eyeballing is just not going to do it.

Recently I was asked to do the same thing for the program that I manage. Over an 8 week term, we run 7 assessment at the end of each week for our students. My job was to find the lowest grade out of the 7 assessment and drop it, taking note of the assessment unit that I dropped for each student.

I use Google Sheets for this purpose for it’s ease of use and sharability.

This is an example dataset of the 7 assessment (in this case, weekly tests) in Google Sheets. We need to remove the lowest grade from each student. As you can see not all students have their lowest grade in the same Unit test.

List of 7 grades for each student - Google Sheets

Google Sheets – Get the Top 2 Grades for Each Group in a Spreadsheet using RANK and FILTER

This week I was asked to provide a list of the top two student grades in each of the 100 classes in our university program.

Normally, this would be a pretty easy task if there were only a half dozen or so classes. Simply sort by group (class) and then Grade. Finally copy and paste the top 2 ranked students of each group in a new sheet – print and hand to the boss.

However, with 100 classes this was going to turn into a time consuming chore and one that could be prone to errors.

To solve this problem, I took advantage of Google Sheets RANK.EQ and FILTER formulas. Let’s take a peek at the formula now and go through the steps in detail later.

=RANK.EQ(D2,FILTER(D:D,C:C = C2))

1	=RANK.EQ(D2,FILTER(D:D,C:C = C2))

=RANK.EQ(Grade,FILTER(Grade Column, Group Column = Group))

1	=RANK.EQ(Grade,FILTER(Grade Column, Group Column = Group))

Let’s move on to an example.

Google Apps Script – Getting Input Data From a Dialog Box in Google Sheets

Google Apps Script, Jquery, Javascript, HTML

One of the weekly tasks in my day job as an academic administrator is to look at a number of ‘modules’ or courses that our college is running and complete some analysis and crosschecking. Each week the students complete a ‘unit’. However, during some quarters, not all modules are doing the same unit. Before I can run my code I need to determine what modules are running and what units we are up to for me to run my automated code.

To do this I created a dialog box when the code is run from the add-on bar. In a few clicks, I can then choose the relevant modules and units and then run the selected code.

Let’s take a look at what the dialog box looks like:

Dialog Form in Google Apps Script

Upon “Submit”, the dialog box returns an array of objects of checked values from the radio buttons that can be uses in the server-side Google Apps Script.

[{
  "orange":"na", 
  "green":3, 
  "blue":"na", 
  "purple":4
}]

[{

"orange":"na",

"green":3,

"blue":"na",

"purple":4

}]

In this tutorial we will look at the following :

Creating a Menu Item and Sub-Item in the Add-on’s menu.
Setting up a Dialog Box.
Preparing a HTML file to set inside the Dialog Box.
Getting the data from the Dialog Box and Sending it Server-side.

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Google Apps Script – How to Automatically Generate a Time From a Four Digit 24 hour Time in Google Sheets.

Google Apps Script, Google Sheets

On a recent board post a Google Sheets user wanted to change a four digit number (for example, 1230) to a time, like 12:30, in the same cell that the item was entered.

Unfortunately the user was not in a position to change the starting values, so they were left with the 4 digits.

There are two ways of doing this with varying levels of complexity:

The Google Sheets Formula Approach
The Google Apps Script onEdit Approach

Continue reading “Google Apps Script – How to Automatically Generate a Time From a Four Digit 24 hour Time in Google Sheets.”

How to Hide a Row based on a Cell Value in Google Sheets with Filter or Google Apps Script.

Google Sheets, Google Apps Script

Sometimes, when you are working on a shared Google Sheet you might want to hide a row based on a cell value.

For example, perhaps we don’t want to see row information of orders that have been paid for. Take a look at my D&D miniatures wholesale orders sheet (image below). I know I don’t need to follow up the orders that have been paid, marked with a ‘Yes’ in column F, so I don’t want to see them on my sheet.

We want to hide the "Yes" - Google Sheets

We can hide these two ways:

Create a filter.
Google Apps Script onEdit() trigger.

Continue reading “How to Hide a Row based on a Cell Value in Google Sheets with Filter or Google Apps Script.”

Sections to Sheets – Free Google Add-on That Separates Column Sections Into Individual Sheets for Page-by-Page Export or Printing

What is Sections to Sheets?

Sections to Sheets is a free Google Sheets Add-on that separates rows by column sections and puts them in individual pages or sheets in a spreadsheet in preparation export and printing.

You can find Sections to Sheets at the Google Chrome Webstore.

Example 1

Let’s say you want to print out a list of expenditures by department and you want each department to start on a new page. You’ll also want to keep the same header for each page.

Example 2

You might want to export a list of grades by class number. You sort the grades by class and then export the list with each class starting on a new page with a header and footer.

Sections to Sheets can help you achieve this quickly by creating a new Google Spreadsheet and separating each selection and putting it into a new Sheet(tab) with or without headers and footer. This will enable you to quickly export or print your sheets.

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Google Apps Script – Copy and Paste Cells While Retaining Column Width in Google Sheets.

Google Apps Script

Have you ever copied and pasted something in Google Sheets only to be frustrated with the fact that it stubbornly refuses to paste the column widths? I mean, everything else is perfect, the formatting, the formulas the comments, they all were pasted across just fine. However, that dastardly column width just does not budge.

copied Google Sheet — When you want to copy and paste this…

Paste without column widths. — …but you get this.

Continue reading “Google Apps Script – Copy and Paste Cells While Retaining Column Width in Google Sheets.”

Google Apps Script – Disable Enable Submit Button in Sidebar

Google Apps Script, Javascript, Jquery, HTML

I was working on a Google Apps Script project lately in Google Sheets that set up parameters in a sidebar and then ran the process once the user clicked the “Submit” button. The problem was that the process was taking a while and that “Submit” Button was ripe to be clicked multiple times by the impatient user, before the server-side code could even finish it’s operation.

To fix this I needed to disable the submit button once it had been clicked and then enable it again once the server-side process was complete. Here, I need to:

Disable the button and get the data from the client-side Javascript inside my sidebar’s html file.
Do something awesome with it server-side.
Upon the completion of the server-side awesome, call back to the html file and enable the button again.

The Example

I have a very simple Google Sheets Side Bar with a “Submit” and “Cancel” button. When the “Submit” button is clicked it calls the function submittington (can he get any more creative? No. No he can’t).

This function then disables the “Submit” button sends a variable to the client side code.gs and displays it stylishly in the sheet multiple times for the users viewing pleasure. After the code.gs function is executed, it calls back to the client-side submittington function and enables the button.

Behold!!! The example:

Disable Enable Button in Sidebar Google Apps Script

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Google Apps Script – How to Alternate Colors in an Ordered List by Column Category.

Google Apps Script and Google Sheets

Imagine that you have a Google Sheet that you have sorted by a certain column. You might be sorting by the surname of your sales team, class sections or regions. To make the sheet easier to read for your team, you want to alternate the background colors after each category in your sort column is complete.

The Example

I have the following list of numbers in column 1 and 2. I have sorted these numbers by my Grouping Column of planets in column 3. After each grouping, I have alternated the background color to make the transition easier to read.

Alternating color by section - Google Apps Script

The Code

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