I'm trying to develop an interactive spreadsheet that creates a narrative for a budget document. There will be a variety of options. Once the user selects an item, it will help them calculate the total. I want to setup option boxes that they fill in. For example, four cells will be allowed for input B1:B4. I am going to name each of the four cells (i.e. A, B, C, D). In the reference document I want to write various formulas. In some cases I might need "(A+B)*C" in another I might need "A * B * C" or "(A+B+C)/D" ... The spreadsheet would lookup the text formula, and I want to then convert it. So in the case of the lookup finding "(A+B)*C" I want it to convert it to =(indirect(A)+indirect(B))*indirect(C) which would then get the values from A (which is B1), B (which is B2) and so on.
Essentially, I would like to use or create something that is exactly the opposite of Excel's FORMULATEXT() function. I would prefer to do this in Google Sheets but I am willing to use Excel if I need to. I have a very basic understanding of both Google's scripting and VBA, and am willing to create if necessary, but not even sure how to tackle it.
Suggestions?
I found a way to do it in Google Apps Script:
function reCalc() {
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
var src = sheet.getRange("J26"); // The cell which holds the formula
var str = src.getValue();
str = str.replace('A', 'indirect("OPTA")').replace('B', 'indirect("OPTB")').replace('C', 'indirect("OPTC")').replace('D', 'indirect("OPTD")').replace('ENR', 'indirect("ENR")');
var cell = sheet.getRange("J30"); // The cell where I want the results to be
cell.setFormula(str); // Setting the formula.
}
Thank you to SpiderPig for giving me the idea!
Related
Not sure if this is going to make sense but here I go.
What I want to do is to create a formula that isn't linked to a cell directly. In example: if I want to calculate carryweight for a tabletop game like D&D I would need the formula (strengthBonus x 5). For my current attempt I renamed the range (cell rather) strengthBonus to MOD_STR so when I put the formula =(multiply(MOD_STR,5) it works like a charm. Then I named that range "CARRYWEIGHT" and then use it elsewhere.
What I would like to be able to do is to make a new variable, similar to the way that "Define Named Range" does, but instead of relying on the variables being somewhere on the spreadsheet they would process from an internal formula. For example, if I type =carryweight into a cell it would run the equation =MULTIPLY(MOD_STR,5) in that cell and output the answer. I know nothing about code yet but have just been pointed in the direction of tutorials but I'm also asking for help here.
The code I have tried is
function CARRYWEIGHT(MOD_STR){
return MOD_STR*2}
and something else, I can't remember what but I got it to at least accept it in the spreadsheet. When I type it in I get an error stating that the outcome isn't a number.
I have no idea where to go from here.
Thank you in advanced for your help.
The difference between sheets formulas and Apps Script is that in Apps Script you need to retrieve the value of the range corresponding to the name of a named range
You cannot simply multiply the name of the range (which is a string!) with a number
Here is a sample of how to retrieve a range by name and make calculations wiht the value stored in it:
function CARRYWEIGHT(MOD_STR){
// retrieve all named ranges in the spreadsheet
var namedRanges = SpreadsheetApp.getActive().getNamedRanges();
//loop through all the results
for (var i = 0; i < namedRanges.length; i++){
var range = namedRanges[i];
//if the range with the name equal to the value of MOD_STR is found, get the cell content of this range
if(range.getName()==MOD_STR){
var value = range.getRange().getValue();
// perform the calculation with the cell content of the named range
return value*2;
}
}
}
From the cell, call the function as =CARRYWEIGHT("paste here the name of the range of interest"), do not forget the quotes (unless it is a cell reference)!
I hope this helped you to get started, for further understanding plese consult the following references.
References
Named Ranges
Loops
Conditional statements
Ranges
getValue()
I am attempting to use a query to display data off multiple Google Sheets. I make a new sheet every week that has a specific sheet name, e.g. Week of 01/13, Week of 01/06 and so forth.
The following is where my idea spawned from for reference:
I have a summary sheet that is using COUNTA(INDIRECT("'" & A5 &
"'!E4:E",true)
A5 being a cell that concatenates a date and words to replicate the
sheet names.
The row on the summary sheet does not populate until B5<=today()
So I am able to set it an forget it and the sheet will continue to
give me my weekly data as the days progress and keeps the sheets clean
until the week is upon us.
Long story short, I have a query that I use that gives me all the data I need with a specific parameter but I have to manually update the data syntax array with the new sheet names each week.
=QUERY({'Week of 01/13'!A:P;'Week of 01/06'!A:P;'Week of 12/30'!A:P;'Week of 12/23'!A:P;'WEEK OF 12/16'!A:P;'WEEK OF 12/09'!A:P;'WEEK OF 12/02'!A:P;'WEEK OF 11/25'!A:P;'WEEK OF 11/18'!A:P;'WEEK OF 11/11'!A:P;'WEEK OF 11/04'!A:P;'WEEK OF 10/28'!A:P;'WEEK OF 10/21'!A:P;'WEEK OF 10/14'!A:P;'WEEK OF 10/07'!A:P;'WEEK OF 09/30'!A:P;'WEEK OF 09/23'!A:P;'WEEK OF 09/16'!A:P;'WEEK OF 09/09'!A:P;'WEEK OF 09/02'!A:P},
"Select * where Col11 = 'RD' order by Col2 desc",0)
I would like to build a reference to an array that will auto-populate a concatenation based on the day.
Using the following code I can have the concatenate give me the array I need,
=if(H4<=today(),CONCATENATE("'",H$1,text(H4,"mm/dd"),"'!A:P;",),"")
but when I try to input it into the query function it just returns the concatenated text:
=QUERY(I1,"Select *")
'Week of 01/06'!A:P;'Week of 01/13'!A:P
I have tried with and without the curly brackets with no success.
I would like the sheet to be able to refresh and see that it is the correct day, the new sheet name is populated and the query gets updated.
I need help with making I1 work.
Link to Test Query Sheet
dudes who copy-pasted INDIRECT function into Google Sheets completely failed to understand the potential of it and therefore they made zero effort to improve upon it and cover the obvious logic which is crucial in this age of arrays.
in other words, INDIRECT can't intake more than one array:
=INDIRECT("Sheet1!A:B"; "Sheet2!A:B")
nor convert an arrayed string into active reference, which means that any attempt of concatenation is also futile:
=INDIRECT(MasterSheet!A1:A10)
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
=INDIRECT("{Sheet1!A:B; Sheet2!A:B}")
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
={INDIRECT("Sheet1!A:B"; "Sheet2!A:B")}
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
=INDIRECT("{INDIRECT("Sheet1!A:B"); INDIRECT("Sheet2!A:B")}")
the only possible way is to use INDIRECT for each end every range like:
={INDIRECT("Sheet1!A:B"); INDIRECT("Sheet2!A:B")}
which means that the best you can do is to pre-program your array like this if only part of the sheets/tabs is existant (let's have a scenario where only 2 sheets are created from a total of 4):
=QUERY(
{IFERROR(INDIRECT("Sheet1!A1:B5"), {"",""});
IFERROR(INDIRECT("Sheet2!A1:B5"), {"",""});
IFERROR(INDIRECT("Sheet3!A1:B5"), {"",""});
IFERROR(INDIRECT("Sheet4!A1:B5"), {"",""})},
"where Col1 is not null", 0)
so, even if sheet names are predictable (which not always are) to pre-program 100+ sheets like this would be painful (even if there are various sneaky ways how to write such formula under 30 seconds)
an alternative would be to use a script to convert string and inject it as the formula
A1 would be formula that treates a string that looks like real formula:
=ARRAYFORMULA("=QUERY({"&TEXTJOIN("; ", 1,
IF(A3:A<>"", "'Week of "&LEFT(A3:A, 5)&"'!A1:D5", ))&
"}, ""where Col1 is not null"", 1)")
further populating of A6:A will expand the string automatically
then this script will take the string from A1 cell and it will paste it as valid formula into C5 cell:
function onEdit() {
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActive().getSheetByName('Master Sheet');
var src = sheet.getRange("A1");
var str = src.getValue();
var cell = sheet.getRange("C5");
cell.setFormula(str);
}
of course, the script can be changed to onOpen trigger or with custom name triggered from the custom menu or via button (however it's not possible to use the custom function as formula directly)
If you're trying to update the data your query is looking at and you're feeding it a string, you need to put that string within the indirect() function. That will interpret your string as a data reference and point your query() in the right direction.
So for this you'd probably have
=QUERY(INDIRECT(I1),"Select *")
I have a sheet that has some dates on it, like "25/02/2016", listed down a column. On the cells to the right of each date, there are some numeric values.
I need to copy these numeric values to a specific range on a different sheet. Ideally, it would work like a one-way sync, where I would write values on sheet1 and sheet2 would automatically be updated.
I've been looking through the Google Apps Script documentation, but I have no idea where to start. I do have some pseudo-code, just don't how to use it here.
function getDates() {
for (count = 0; count < sheet1.length; count++) {
if (hasDate) {
return(cell);
}
}
}
var numericValuesRows = sheet1.getDates().getRow();
var numericValuesRange = numericValuesRows.selectColumns(C-F);
Just making up method names and syntax. This bit is supposed to find out which rows have dates in them, and then select columns C to F in those rows. The next one is supposed to select the destination as all the cells from row3:columnC to row10:columnF, and copy the previously selected values to there.
var outputRange = sheet2.cellRange(C3-F10);
numericValuesRange.copyTo(outputRange);
I realise it's really crappy pseudo-code, but I'm hoping it at least helps in some way get across what I want to do. What would be the best way to do this?
Use the onEdit() trigger which will trigger when you edit a sheet. You can check the source of the edit to make sure its an edit to the cells you want in a particular sheet. Once that's done, its a matter of using getValue(), setValue() and getSheetByName(). Start here: simple triggers
I have a google spreadsheet with different sheets, each one representing a different week.
For example:
1/12 - 1/16
1/19 - 1/23
I want to do a chart based on the content of those sheets. Is there any way I can make a formula and extract the name of the sheet from a content of a cell?
For example something like "=EVAL(A1)!$B$4", then I would have the content from "1/12 - 1/16"!$B$4 instead of having to go through each one of the weeks of the year manually.
Thanks for the help!
There’s no need to use AppScript, INDIRECT is enough to read a sheet name from a cell:
=INDIRECT(A1 & "!$B$4")
However, it looks like Andy’s answer is the way to go if you want to get the sheet name from its index rather than from a cell.
It'd be best to use AppScript. In Tools -> Script Editor make a new AppScript script:
function getSheetName(i) {
var s = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheets()
return s[i].getName();
}
With that in your script, you can then use the custom function =getSheetName(<SHEETNUMBER>) and it will retrieve the sheet name based what sheet number it is (starting from 0). From there, just incorporate it into your formulas. You may need to use INDIRECT.
Example: =INDIRECT(getSheetName(1)&"!A1") to get cell A1 in the second sheet.
We're migrating a lot of our business logic to scripts behind the scenes, but I'm worried that they'll be much more fragile when columns move.
On Sheet Updates Automagically
For example, If I have a formula on a spreadsheet like this:
=If(A1=5,"Yes","No")
And then I Insert 1 Column Left of A, the formula will be automatically updated like this:
=If(B1=5,"Yes","No")
Apps scripts doesn't update
For example, if I have the formula in the script section:
function myFunction() {
var value = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet().getRange("A1").getValue();
var output = (value == 5) ? 'Yes' : 'No';
Logger.log(output);
}
It will not update when the sheet changes.
Q: How can I get stable references in the code behind for columns that could potentially move?
This is a general problem when hardcoding strings or numbers in code.
In general the javascript parser can't tell which strings might be used on a sheet function call. Its sometimes not trivial to solve.
Two approaches are:
If the columns/cells/ranges are known beforehand, use named ranges:
Define a named range and use NamedRange in code. Use the range to directly write to it or query its row/column position.
Another for column based ranges like yours is that your code does this naming manually by using the column header as the column names. Code uses those names and reads the header to build the mapping.