Finding matches from 2 ranges and replacing matches with a specific value, any way to optimize? - google-apps-script

Question

This is the sample sheet.
From this
1 Search area Bounty list Bullet
2 a i z a b c abc
3 e b d d e f def
4 y f h g h i ghi
5
6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
7 Column #
To this
1 Search area Bounty list Bullet
2 abc ghi z a b c abc
3 def abc def d e f def
4 y def ghi g h i ghi
5
6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
7 Column #
It will take a value "bounty" from the "bounty list" starting from (2,5) or "a", search around the "Search Area" in a sequence, from a, i, z, e, b, d, y, f, h. Then if it finds a cell or multiple cells that equals the value of "bounty", then it will place the value of "bullet" from column 8 on the current "bounty" row to those cells. The process will repeat in the sequence of a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i on the "bounty list". Both process moves to the left, and down.
function menuItem1()
{
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveSheet();
var target = sheet.getDataRange().getValues();
for (var BountyRow = 2; BountyRow<target.length; BountyRow++)//switching rows in bounty list//
{
var bullet = sheet.getRange(BountyRow, 8).getValue(); //cell value to paste on targets//
for (var BountyColumn = 5; BountyColumn<8; BountyColumn++) //switching columns in bounty list//
{
var bounty = sheet.getRange(BountyRow, BountyColumn).getValue(); // cell value to search for//
if (bounty !=0)
{
for (var SearchRow = 1; SearchRow<target.length; SearchRow++) //switching row on search area//
{
for(var SearchColumn = 0; SearchColumn<4;SearchColumn++)//switching column on search area//
{
if(target[SearchRow][SearchColumn] == bounty) //if search target is found//
{
var found = target[SearchRow][SearchColumn];
sheet.getRange(SearchRow+1, SearchColumn+1).setValue(bullet);
Logger.log((found)+ " in "+"row"+(SearchRow+1)+", column"+(SearchColumn+1));
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
It involves thousands of searches which always use more than a minute and I was wondering if there is a more efficient way to do it?

Answer 1

In order to optimize your code you need to do two things:
Instead of using getValue() and setValue() for each cell (which makes you code slow)
retrieve all your bounty list and search are data once, with getValues()
assign the values to an array
replace matches within the the array
set the updated array values back into the range with setValues()
Make use of indexOf() and map()
to find matches and replace them more efficiently
Sample:
function menuItem1(){
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveSheet();
var lastRow=sheet.getLastRow();
var searchValues=sheet.getRange(2,1,lastRow-2+1,3).getValues();
var bountyValues=sheet.getRange(2,5,lastRow-2+1,3).getValues();
var bulletValues=sheet.getRange(2,8,lastRow-2+1,1).getValues();
for (var i = 0; i<bountyValues.length; i++){
for (var j = 0; j<bountyValues[0].length; j++){
if (bountyValues[i][j] !=0){
replaceValues(searchValues, bountyValues[i][j], bulletValues[i][0]);
}
}
}
sheet.getRange(2,1,lastRow-2+1,3).setValues(searchValues)
}
function replaceValues(search, bounty, bullet) {
for(var k=0;k<search.length;k++){
search[k]=search[k].map(function(search) {
var regex=new RegExp("\\b"+bounty+"\\b","g");
return search.toString().replace(regex, bullet);
});
}
}