How can I use a variable as a parameter in getSheetByName? - google-apps-script

Question

I have the following code which generates some gslides slides from data in a spreadsheet. The code is attached to the gslides file and it works when the parameters for link/year are entered as strings. However, these parameters will sometimes vary from a set list (e.g. pull from a different sheet or from a different file) so the code sometimes needs to be edited.
I want to share this with colleagues who don't know how to use app scripts and so tried to edit it so that the link/year can be pulled from a textbox in one of the slides in the gslides file. They are pulling through ok but when I try to use it as a parameter I get an error for line 11 (var values = sheet.getRange('F2:aa2').getValues();) as the sheet returns as null.
I've tried wrapping it in quotes (" ' " + year + " ' ") but that doesn't work either.
Please let me know if I need to include more info or a link to the sheets/slides files.
function generateStarters() {
var deck = SlidesApp.getActivePresentation();
var slides = deck.getSlides();
var link = slides[2].getPageElements()[2].asShape().getText().asString()
var year = slides[2].getPageElements()[4].asShape().getText().asString()
var dataSpreadsheetUrl = link
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl(dataSpreadsheetUrl);
var sheet = ss.getSheetByName(year);
var values = sheet.getRange('F2:aa2').getValues();
var templateSlide = slides[1];
var presLength = slides.length;
values.forEach(function(page){
if(page[0]){
var Q1 = page[0];
var A1 = page[1];
var Q2 = page[4];
var A2 = page[5];
var Q3 = page[8];
var A3 = page[9];
var Q4 = page[12];
var A4 = page[13];
var QK = page[16];
var AK = page[17];
var QF = page[20];
var AF = page[21];
templateSlide.duplicate(); //duplicate the template page
slides = deck.getSlides(); //update the slides array for indexes and length
newSlide = slides[3]; // declare the new page to update
var shapes = (newSlide.getShapes());
shapes.forEach(function(shape){
shape.getText().replaceAllText('{{q1}}',Q1);
shape.getText().replaceAllText('{{a1}}',A1);
shape.getText().replaceAllText('{{q2}}',Q2);
shape.getText().replaceAllText('{{a2}}',A2);
shape.getText().replaceAllText('{{q3}}',Q3);
shape.getText().replaceAllText('{{a3}}',A3);
shape.getText().replaceAllText('{{q4}}',Q4);
shape.getText().replaceAllText('{{a4}}',A4);
shape.getText().replaceAllText('{{qk}}',QK);
shape.getText().replaceAllText('{{ak}}',AK);
shape.getText().replaceAllText('{{qf}}',QF);
shape.getText().replaceAllText('{{af}}',AF);
});
presLength = slides.length;
newSlide.move(presLength);
}
});
} ```

Answer 1

The string from the slides file seems to always have a space at the end (from the textbox) so I just needed to add an extra line of code to remove that space.