Improve spreadsheet filtering script performance - google-apps-script

Question

I have a spreadsheet where first column contains names and next 17 contains 0, 1 or are empty. Every row looks like this:
foobar 0 0 0 1 0 1 // and so on
I need to make function, called from menu, that shows the user only rows with 1 in the target column (arg1). Here is code:
var ssBase = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
var last = ssBase.getLastRow() ;
var data = ssBase.getDataRange().getValues();
function SkillsFilter(arg1){
ssBase.showRows(1, last+1);
for (var i=1; i < last; i++){
if (data[i][arg1] != "1"){
ssBase.hideRows(i+1);
}}}
This function doesn't perform as fast as I'd like. How should I increase performance? Will cache help me or something else?

Answer 1

You're making many calls to the Spreadsheet services within your for loop - if you can change those many operations into one, you'll see a great speed improvement. Read Best Practices for some background and guidance.
I suggest that you reconsider the approach of hiding & showing various rows of data. Instead, you could display a filtered list, and manipulate that filter using your menu functions. Let's say the data you have looks like this...
On a second tab in the spreadsheet, you could provide the filtered version of your list. The following formula in cell A2 would create a filtered list of data from the orignal data sheet (called "Master" in this example):
=filter(Master!A2:R;Master!D2:D="1")
To create that filter programmatically, use the setFormulaR1C1() function. Here is a function that you could call from your menu items to set the filter for any particular column.
/**
* Sets the filter in cell A2 of the sheet named "Filter" to display
* only rows with a number 1 in the indicated column.
*
* #param {number} column The "skill" column to filter for
*/
function setFilter(column) {
column = column | 2; // Use first "skill" column as default
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName("Filter");
var formula = "Master!R[0]C[0]:C[17];Master!R[0]C["
+column
+"]:C["
+column
+"]=1";
sheet.getRange("A2").setFormulaR1C1(formula);
}

Answer 2

This piece of code will show all rows that contain the number 1, thought the column range:
function mySort() {
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveSheet();
// set col and row
var col = sheet.getLastColumn(), row = sheet.getLastRow()-1;
// hide all rows
sheet.hideRows(2, row);
// itterate through columns
for(var k=0; k<col; k++) {
this.data = sheet.getRange(2, 1, row, col)
.sort({column: parseInt(k+1), ascending: true}).getValues();
//set counters
var cFirst=0, cSecond=0;
// itterate to find number of "1" rows in column k
for(var i=0; i<row; i++) {
if(this.data[i][k] == 1) {
cFirst++;
} else {
cSecond++;
}
}
// calculate rowIndex
var rIndex = row-cSecond;
// show (unhide) only "1" rows
sheet.showRows(rIndex+2, cFirst);
}
}
See example file I created: Show the one's. When the file is opened, it will add another menu item called Sorting. There you can play around and see what happens.