getValue formatting is off when pulling a date from spreadsheet - google-apps-script

I'm using a script to convert a spreadsheet to a PDF.
To define the title of the PDF, I'm pulling in data from a few specific cells, one of which contains a date. The problem is, the date comes out in a long format in the title. Here's a chunk of my code:
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.openById("XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"); // Opens spreadsheet to pull name from, by ID.
var sheet = ss.getSheetByName('PurchaseOrderForm'); // Sets the sheet
var ponumber = sheet.getRange("G3:G3"); // Define ranges/cells here + below.
var date = sheet.getRange("G2:G2") // Custom cell to pull from
var companyname = sheet.getRange("A11:A11") // These are then added together in line 30
var name = ponumber.getValue()+" | "+date.getValue()+" | "+companyname.getValue()+".pdf"; // Output of the final PDF name. A composition of the above vars, plus some custom text.
This creates the PDF name almost as I want it, except for the date part. This is an example of the PDF titles I get:
14PO051 | Tue Jan 28 2014 00:00:00 GMT-0000 (GMT) | Micronclean.pdf
The date comes out, but not in a format I want/need. In the spreadsheet the date cell, G2, is formatted DD/MM/YY. I need something like this to come out in my title, otherwise it's just too long to be of any use.
If anyone knows how to get it down to DD/MM/YY or equivalent, I'd be grateful to know!
One workaround would be to not have the dates formatted, and just manually input them into the spreadsheet. I hope it doesn't come to that, my colleagues like not having to type the whole thing out.

var date = Utilities.formatDate(sheet.getRange("G2:G2").getValue(), ss.getSpreadsheetTimeZone(), "dd/MM/YY");
?

To get the values from the sheet as they appear (using sheet formatting), use getDisplayValue or getDisplayValues
https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/spreadsheet/range#getdisplayvalues
(use the plural function anytime you're getting more than 1 cell, if possible; batch ops are faster!)

Related

Convert a string to a date format using a script or a Google Sheets built-in formula

DESCRIPTION:
I want to convert a DD/MM/YYYY HH:mm or 25/01/2022 11:00 string, in an accepted date format.
Doesn't matter which one, it just has to be recognized by Apps Script and Google Sheets and be able to work with it.
If you can provide an Apps Script's code (not a formula in Google Sheets like I attempted to do) that converts the string into a date and then set the values in another range, to work with them as dates, I would be grateful, thanks.
If it's a Google Sheet formula no problem, as long as it works.
TRIED:
After many attempts, I tried to build a custom formula putting pieces together around the web but it doesn't function
//formula is translated from italian
=ARRAYFORMULA(IF(F10:F="",,TEXT(DATE(
IF.ERROR(REGEXEXTRACT(F10:F, "/(\d+) "), YEAR(F10:F))*1,
IF.ERROR(REGEXEXTRACT(F10:F, "/(\d+)"), MONTH(F10:F))*1,
IF.ERROR(REGEXEXTRACT(F10:F, "\d+"), DAY(F10:F))*1)+
IF.ERROR(TIME.VALUE(F10:F), REGEXEXTRACT(F10:F, "\d+:\d+")+
IF(REGEXMATCH(F10:F, "PM"), 0.5, 0)), "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm")))
It gives a #VALUE error, which says "'11:00' is a string and can't be recognized as a date" (11:00 is an example).
I've also got the Regular Expression, but I don't know if it's correct and how to use it in code:
/([\d])\w+\/([\d])\w+\/([\d])\w+\s([\d])\w+\:([\d])\w+/g
I also tried changing the time zone but it didn't work.
Keep in mind I'm using the Italian time zone, if it's possible I'd rather keep it as it is.
Table example (like I said, what's important is that dates are accepted as dates):
F: Column source strings
Q: Column desired dates recognizable as dates by Sheets
(Q because it's the real column where I want to put the formula)
F
..
Q
16/02/2023 16:00
16/02/2023 16:00:00
25/11/2022 15:00
25/11/2022 15:00:00
For #Cooper and the solution based on the script.
I've customized the script, but it doesn't recognize the split function anymore (copy and paste of your function logs what it expects in Apps Script), and doesn't get any results in overwriting the existing string dates.
let dateStringed; //source wrong dates
var i = 0;
var flatArray;
function expired() {
//bLast is the range Last Row
dateStringed = gen.getRange(10, 6, bLast, 1).getValues();
flatArray = [].concat.apply([], dateStringed);
while (i <= bLast) {
i++;
convert();
};
Logger.log(flatArray);
gen.getRange(10, 6, bLast, 1).setValues(flatArray);
};
function convert(s=flatArray[i]) { //instead of "25/01/2022 11:00"
let [d,m,y,hr,mn] = s.split(/[\/ :]/)
Logger.log('y: %s m: %s d: %s hr: %s mn: %s',y,m,d,hr,mn);
Logger.log(new Date(y,m - 1,d,hr,mn).toLocaleString());
//don't know if it's correct, but it logs the dates
//in an easier syntax
};
For #doubleunary solution:
Demo SHEET ITA
In the sheet I copied and pasted the first column of my private original sheet, the F column with the text dates, and the Q10 cell I've pasted the formula as it is
I made sure to set local to Italy but to display english name formulas.
I don't know why, here it colors green and it doesn't give me a result.
But I did a test, and set the sheet tu US time and it functions. Any idea on how to make it function in Italian version?
Demo SHEET US
Solved: I used this script
function dateCorrected(){
gen.getRange('N10:N').clearContent();
//get the formula from another code sheet:
//'=arrayformula( SE.ERRORE( 1 / VALORE(
//regexreplace( to_text(F10:F);
//"(\d+)/(\d+)/(\d+) (\d+):(\d+)"; "$3-$2-$1 $4.$5" ) ) ^ -1 ) )'
var dateCorr = codeSheet.getRange('T1').getFormula();
Logger.log(dateCorr);
gen.getRange('N10').setFormula(dateCorr);
gen.getFilter().sort(14, false);
gen.getRange('N10:N').clearContent();
gen.getRange('N10').setFormula(dateCorr);
}
And this gives me the possibility to delete rows that meet a certain date condition. Thank you all for the support.
It is usually easiest to do the text string to datetime conversion using a spreadsheet formula. You can convert text strings like 25/01/2022 11:00 to dates with this formula in cell G10:
=arrayformula( iferror( 1 / value( regexreplace( to_text(F10:F); "(\d+)/(\d+)/(\d+) (\d+):(\d+)"; "$3-$2-$1 $4.$5" ) ) ^ -1 ) )
Format the result column as Format > Number > Date time.
In the event you need to "fix" those datetime values in place, you can replace the formula results with static values with Control+C to copy and Control+Shift+V to paste values only, or do the same with a simple range.setValues(range.getValues()) script bit.
In the event you need to pass those datetime values to Apps Script, it is usually easiest to get them as Date objects rather than text strings. The Date objects will refer to the same moment in time (in UTC) as the date times in the spreadsheet (in the spreadsheet's time zone).
You should note that Apps Script is JavaScript which means that Date objects are always in the UTC timezone. If you log them or output them in some other way, they will not be shown in the Italian timezone as you expect.
There are two easy ways to present such dates in a human-readable format in the spreadsheet's timezone. The first is to directly get the data as a text string in the format that it is shown in the spreadsheet:
function test1() {
const ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
const dateStrings = ss.getRange('Sheet1!G10:G')
.getDisplayValues()
.flat()
.filter(String);
console.log(dateStrings);
}
The second is to get the data as Date objects and convert them to text strings using the spreadsheet's timezone, like this:
function test2() {
const ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
const timezone = ss.getSpreadsheetTimeZone();
const dates = ss.getRange('Sheet1!G10:G')
.getValues()
.flat()
.filter(String)
.map(date =>
Object.prototype.toString.call(date) === '[object Date]'
? Utilities.formatDate(date, timezone, 'dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm')
: date
);
console.log(dates);
}
Convert String to Date:
function convert(s="25/01/2022 11:00") {
let [d,m,y,hr,mn] = s.split(/[\/ :]/)
Logger.log('y: %s m: %s d: %s hr: %s mn: %s',y,m,d,hr,mn);
Logger.log(new Date(y,m - 1,d,hr,mn));
}
Execution log
10:58:11 AM Notice Execution started
10:58:12 AM Info y: 2022 m: 01 d: 25 hr: 11 mn: 00
10:58:12 AM Info Tue Jan 25 11:00:00 GMT-07:00 2022
10:58:13 AM Notice Execution completed
To convert a string to a Date object in Google Apps Script use Utilities.parseDate.
Example:
function myFunction(){
const spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
const timeZone = spreadsheet.getSpreadsheetTimeZone();
const date = Utilities.parseDate('25/01/2022 11:00',timeZone, 'dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm');
return date;
}
Using the above as a custom function might not make sense for some use cases since the same result might be achieved by using built-in functions which are more efficient and less prone to have problems.
The options for using built-in functions depends on the spreadsheet settings, i.e. DATEVALUE might return different results for ambiguos dates like 25/01/2022 as for certain regions the month goes first and for others the day of the month goes first.
=DATEVALUE("25/01/2022") works correctly when the spreasheet region is set to Italy. You might have to manually set the cell formatting to date in order to make it show a date instead of the time serialized value (a number).
To convert 25/01/2022 11:00 using formulas in the above spreadsheet, use
=INDEX(SPLIT("25/01/2022 11:00";" ");1) + SUBSTITUTE(INDEX(SPLIT("25/01/2022 11:00";" ");2);":";".")
The above formula has two main parts joined by using +. The first part returns the time serialized value corresponding to the date, the second part returns the time serialized value corresponding to the time.
Array formula
=ArrayFormula(DATEVALUE(REGEXEXTRACT(F10:F;"^([ˆ\d/]+) "))+TIMEVALUE(SUBSTITUTE(REGEXEXTRACT(F10:F;" ([ˆ\d/:]+)$");":";".")))
The same concept as the previous formula, but instead of INDEX it uses REGEXEXTRACT.
Google has a Utility to do just that!
let dateTime = '2022-12-16 13:00:00';
let timeZone = 'GMT';
let convertedDateTime = Utilities.formatDate(dateTime, timeZone, 'dd/MM/yyyy HH:ss')
check out Class Utilities for more info.

How To Display Weekday in Google Sheet Script?

Please Forgive me if this has been covered couldn't find it. But Does anyone have an idea on how to get a weekday (monday, Tues, Ect...) in this Script i have running.
function newColumn() {
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var sheet = ss.getSheetByName('Song of the Day');
sheet.insertColumnAfter(1);
sheet.getRange("B1").setValue(new Date()).setNumberFormat('mmm/d/yyyy');
}
Currently ^ It makes a new column B and adds the date in cell B1 Every day I would just like that date to remain the same but also display the day of the week beside it also Thanks in advance!
Display Day of Week:
function DisplayDayOfWeek() {
Logger.log(["Sun","Mon","Tue","Wed","Thu","Fri","Sat"][new Date().getDay()])
}
If I understand right you want Column B to contain the date, and you want that to format like 'mmm/d/yyyy' and then you want column C to also have the date but to be formatted to show the Name of the Day.
I would modify your script to place the date unformatted into both columns B and C, and then use the formatting controls in your spreadsheet to display them how you want to.
Your code would change to:
function newColumn() {
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var sheet = ss.getSheetByName('Song of the Day');
sheet.insertColumnAfter(1);
sheet.getRange("B1").setValue(new Date());
sheet.insertColumnAfter(2);
sheet.getRange("C1").setValue(new Date());
}
On Your spreadsheet choose the Column C, then from Format>Custom Date and Time choose one with the Name of the Day listed, and remove the parts you don't want until it looks like this:
custom date image "Day Name Only"
If you wanted to format it with code then as shown here Javascript in Google Sheets script: help using setNumberFormat
you should grab the cell and format the cell:
var cell = sheet.getRange("B1");
cell.setNumberFormat('mmm/d/yyyy');
var cell = sheet.getRange("C1");
cell.setNumberFormat('dddd+');
Date number Formattings found here: https://developers.google.com/sheets/api/guides/formats

Writing to a cell based on todays date

I am learning coding in Sheets, and have already jigsawed together a couple of games (based off very limited coding knowledge. Very fun to see it come together
Next task:
I am logging my hours spent doing "Growth" things (like learning, exercise, work etc.) vs "Leisure" things (like TV, games, FB scrolling etc). Up until now I just scroll down to today's date and add in the numbers manually. Would be fun to have a button at the top of my sheet that just adds hours to the "Growth" or "Leisure" cells for today.
I have used formulae in the cell G371 to reveal the A1 notation of my target cell, hoping I can use this info in a script to write to that cell:
=substitute(Cell("address",vlookup(A1,A2:D367,3)),"$","")
Where cell A1 contains =today()
and A2:A367 are all the dates in the year.
and columns C and D hold numbers for growth and leisure respectively.
Then I tried this code to try to see how to write to a cell. I realise I am probably missing some very fundamental knowledge...
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var cellname = ss.getRange('G371') // makes cellname refer to G371
var input = cellname.getValue() // makes 'input' return the contents of G371, in today's case its 'C120'
var test = ss.getRange(input) // hopefully reads 'C120' instead of "input"
test.setValue(1) // setting value to 1 for now, as I'm just testing cell
// referencing. later I will work on figuring out the
// math for the buttons. I'm not there yet.
So it didn't work. apparently the problem is with ss.getRange(input) but I don't know what to do about that.
So my question is how to write to a cell that is named in another cell?
hope it makes sense
Thanks!
PS Here is a copy of the sheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KkoCb8kY1XICMeB9bx65HXsldCS-fa75xJCaU52WGg8/edit?usp=sharing
The formula in the cell might be messing with the value you retrieve. To make sure that does not happen, you can use getDisplayValue() instead of getValue().
Another way:
Also, if you just want to retrieve the cell where to write today's growth (or leisure), you don't need to follow this roundabout way of creating a formula in another cell to reference this one. You can do this instead (check comments):
function todayGrowthCell() {
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
var date = Utilities.formatDate(new Date(), Session.getScriptTimeZone(), "d/M"); // Format today's date as in spreadsheet, in order to compare
var firstRow = 2; // Row where days start
var column = 3; // Column C (Growth)
var dates = sheet.getRange(2, 1, 366).getDisplayValues().map(row => row[0]); // Retrieve columns with dates (its display value, in order to compare with today's date, which is formatted accordingly)
var row = dates.indexOf(date) + firstRow; // Today's row
var cell = sheet.getRange(row, column); // Today's growth cell
cell.setValue(1); // Set value to today's growth cell
}

Format currency based on condition

New to Google Apps Script, but have some VBA coding experience.
I am looking to be able to have the numeric format of a cell decided based on a different cell input.
eg.
Col A - Client Name (Validated range)
Col B - Currency Type (GBP, USD, EUR - validated list)
Col C - Fee (100 - free type by user)
Based on the selection in Col B it needs to put the format in col C as either:
£100.00 or
$100.00 or
€100.00.
This should be done in such a way that the "autosum" function displayed on the bottom of google sheet is still able to add the values, or if using a sumif function will result in the USD, GBP and EUR totals being correct. I.E. it cannot be a text based solution or at least not one where this is not the result.
Try using onEdit trigger, and set custom number format.
Here's code sampe for currency formats:
function customNumberFormat() {
var SS = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var ss = SS.getSheetByName('Sheet1');
var range1 = ss.getRange("C2");
var range2 = ss.getRange("C3");
var range3 = ss.getRange("C4");
var format1 = "£ 00.00"
var format2 = "$ 00.00"
var format3 = "€ 00.00"
range1.setNumberFormat(format1);
range2.setNumberFormat(format2);
range3.setNumberFormat(format3);
}
Make script to check current entry in column with sum and format it in proper currency.
But text solution with formula looks better for me:
This way you are hiding the entries in column with sum, and show text with format. Sums can be used in further formulas.
There's also simple ArrayFormula:
=ArrayFormula(TEXT(C2,VLOOKUP(OFFSET(B2,,,COUNTA(B2:B)),H:I,2,0)&" 0.00"))
If you paste it in D2, it'll expand automatically.

Writing a string of multiple date / time to a single cell

I have an array of a couple (the array is up to 10) date/time that I want to write to a spreadsheet using getRange().setValues(). I'm converting the array to a string and it looks correct in Logger.
[Mon Feb 02 14:01:00 GMT-06:00 2015, Tue Feb 02 01:00:00 GMT-06:00 2016, , , , , , , , ]
When I try to write the string to a single cell in a sheet:
target6.setValues(source_range6_values);
I get this error:
Incorrect range width, was 10 but should be 1 (line 84, file "Code")
Edited 4/28/2014 adding entire script:
/**
* Copies source range and pastes at first empty row on target sheet
*/
function CopyIt(){
//Establishing source and target sheets
var source_spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var target_spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.openById("0AhCv9Xu_eRnSdHpLTkc0d1ZURUtyTU9oRjdFbmpMUFE");
// Get source and target sheets - can be the same or different
var sourcesheet = source_spreadsheet.getSheetByName("Form Responses");
var targetsheet = target_spreadsheet.getSheetByName("Work_Orders");
//Get row of last form submission
var source_last_row = sourcesheet.getLastRow();
// Check for answer to Do you need a Flyer Created? If No, end now. If Yes, continue.
var check = sourcesheet.getRange("T"+(source_last_row)).getValue();
if (check == 'Yes') {
//Pulling date(s) from the users form entry (source sheet) into an array
var daterange = sourcesheet.getRange("H"+source_last_row+":Q"+source_last_row);
//Getting the values of the array
var classDate = daterange.getValues();
//changing the array values to a string
classDate.toString();
//Building a new variable with the string to be inserted below in the target sheet
var source_range6_values = classDate;
//source_range6_values.toString();
Logger.log(classDate[0]);
// Get the last row on the target sheet
var last_row = targetsheet.getLastRow();
//Setting the target cell in the Marketing Work Order sheet
var target6 = targetsheet.getRange("U"+(last_row+1));
// Aadding a new row in the target sheet
targetsheet.insertRowAfter(last_row);
//Inserting the values of source_range6_values into the target sheet. Unfortunately it does not enter the data into the same field and it's in military time.
target6.setValue(source_range6_values);
Logger.log(source_range6_values);
}
}
To give a correct answer for your question, i guess i need to know how you get the value of source_range6_values.
One quick guess is you might want to use target6.setValue instead of target6.setValues since you want to write the data into one cell only...
A quick & dirty way would be to replace the commas(with spaces):
source = String(source_range6_values).replace("," , " ");
I've had fun with GAS and variables. Casting it as a String should let you use the string functions on it. If that doesn't work can you share a mock-up of your sheets so I can take a look?
edit:
I had to play around with it a bit, seems google's version of .replace() only replaces the first instance (and doesn't allow .replaceAll() ).
I edited your code starting on line 23:
//Getting the values of the array
var classDate = daterange.getValues().toString();
//Building a new variable with the string to be inserted below in the target sheet
//Google has bugs, .replace() seems to only replace the first instance
//-while {} loop replaces all of them
while (!classDate.equals(classDate.replace("," , " "))) { classDate = classDate.replace("," , " "); };
var source_range6_values = classDate;
All the dates are in one cell if you change only those lines (and no errors).
I appreciate the help you two have given me trying to answer this question. #swimmingwood fixed the actual capture of the data into a string, but it left commas and when I inserted it into the target sheet, it wrote it to multiple cells with an error. It did write to the sheet but the error had you use a CTRL-E (inside the taget sheet) to complete the insert and wrote them into separate cells.
#MickATX suggested the code to replace the commas in the string with a space, which would be fine, but apparently he discovered a Google scripting problem that would only allow for the first comma to be replaced and ignore the rest. Great knowledge never-the-less.
I ended up using a formula in an addition cell in the source sheet that looked like this:
=ArrayFormula(CONCATENATE(REPT(TEXT(H2:Q2,"mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm a")&CHAR(10),H2:Q2>0)))
This formula wrote all the date/time entries provided by the form entry into one cell of the source sheet and ONLY the number of entries (1-10). I then wrote that single cell to the target sheet via the script.
Thanks to #swimmingwood and #MickATX for trying to help me, both provided worthy knowledge.
I've read a couple of strange answers here...
If you write an 2D array to a sheet it will obviously be written accross multiple cells... commas are definitely not the issue but the nature of the object is.
Simply convert your array into a string using .toString() or .join() (the latter providing the advantage you can choose the separator to use) and setValue() (without S) at the place you want.
the commas you see in the logger are only typographic representation of array elements separators...
And, last point : the .join() or .toString() methods return new variables, they don't modify the original value so when you write classDate.toString(); you are not doing anything ...
you should write it like this :
classDateAsAString = classDate.toString();
finally your code :
function CopyIt(){
//Establishing source and target sheets
var source_spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var target_spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.openById("0AhCv9Xu_eRnSdHpLTkc0d1ZURUtyTU9oRjdFbmpMUFE");
// Get source and target sheets - can be the same or different
var sourcesheet = source_spreadsheet.getSheetByName("Form Responses");
var targetsheet = target_spreadsheet.getSheetByName("Work_Orders");
//Get row of last form submission
var source_last_row = sourcesheet.getLastRow();
// Check for answer to Do you need a Flyer Created? If No, end now. If Yes, continue.
var check = sourcesheet.getRange("T"+(source_last_row)).getValue();
if (check == 'Yes') {
//Pulling date(s) from the users form entry (source sheet) into an array
var daterange = sourcesheet.getRange("H"+source_last_row+":Q"+source_last_row);
//Getting the values of the array
var classDate = daterange.getValues();
var source_range6_values = classDate.join(' & ');// using & as separator for example
// Get the last row on the target sheet
var last_row = targetsheet.getLastRow();
//Setting the target cell in the Marketing Work Order sheet
var target6 = targetsheet.getRange("U"+(last_row+1));
// Adding a new row in the target sheet
targetsheet.insertRowAfter(last_row);
//Inserting the values of source_range6_values into the target sheet. Unfortunately it does not enter the data into the same field and it's in military time.
target6.setValue(source_range6_values);
Logger.log(source_range6_values);
}
}
Now if you want to format the dates in a more civilized way, that should be handled a bit differently... let me know if you still need it / want it.