Google apps script not throwing exception - google-apps-script

Question

I have been playing around google apps script for a while, and I stumbled across the "Your input contains more than the maximum of 50000 characters in a single cell" error. But when I tried to prevent my script from crashing because of it, using try-catch statement, it didn't work.
I checked in the Google apps script documentation site (https://developers.google.com/apps-script/), and found nothing.
Moreover, I tried to run that sample code:
function myFunction() {
try
{
var a = ""
for (i = 0; i< 50000; i++)
a += '111'
SpreadsheetApp.open(DriveApp.getFileById("FileID")).getActiveSheet().getRange(1,1).setValue(a)
}
catch (e)
{
Logger.log(e.message)
}
}
And it crashed, leaving no record in the log.
Any idea on how to prevent crashing? preferably with some code segment that will allow me to manipulate the input?
I will be grateful for any help.
EDIT
My script should handle big amounts of data, so running time is really important for me. Right now I'm using a solution that looks like
a.substring (0,50000)
But the thing that I really want to see is something that will be activated only when needed, so it will be faster...

Answer 1

To solve your issue of catching the "Your input contains more than the maximum of 50000 characters in a single cell" error use SpreadsheetApp.flush();
function myFunction() {
try
{
var a = ""
for (i = 0; i< 50000; i++)
a += '111'
SpreadsheetApp.open(DriveApp.getFileById("FileID")).getActiveSheet().getRange(1,1).setValue(a);
SpreadsheetApp.flush();
}
catch (e)
{
Logger.log(e.message)
}
}
Note: I am not answering the performance issue as I think that has been addressed in the previous answer.

Answer 2

How about something like:
var CELL_MAX_LEN = 50000; // Or whatever value you choose
function checkAndWriteCellValue(range, value) {
if (value.length > CELL_MAX_LEN) {
value = 'Too long!'; // Or something else, truncate value etc
}
range.setValue(value);
}
You could call it like this:
var range = spreadsheet.getActiveSheet().getRange(...); // Add the specifics of your range
checkAndWriteCellValue(range, value);