Copy a range from a csv file to a Google Spreadsheet

Question

I am building a Google Spreadsheet that for various reasons (mostly to do with me being MUCH better with Excel than Google) will need to import a range of cells from a CSV file and copy them into my Google Spreadsheet.

• The csv file I am copying from is called 'WorkFlowDataStore.csv and I want to copy cells A1:Y1001....it is stored in the same google drive folder as my spreadsheet
• The spreadsheet I am copying to is called 'WorkCalendar', and I want to paste the information into cell A1 on the sheet 'WorkCal'.

I am reasonably competent using copy-and-paste to cobble together some VBA, but know next to nothing about Google scripts.

Things I have already tried include:

• How to write to a "Google Spreadsheet" from Excel 2003 VBA ....this half-works, but all I see is a load of wingdings-style gobbledegook
• https://developers.google.com/apps-script/articles/docslist_tutorial ...but this is not really doing what I want
• The 'importData' formula...but this gives me a #REF error telling me I need to create 1000 more columns

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated...I am frustrated as this would take me 30 seconds to do in Excel.

Thanks,

Jon

Answer 1

I answered this myself in the end. The solution was the code below, which was adapted from here: How to automatically import data from uploaded CSV or XLS file into Google Sheets , and to make sure that the CSV file I was importing was formatted as an MS-DOS CSV file.

function importData() {
var fSource = DriveApp.getFolderById('0B6MhpeZ2qe57WVdrLWNPdXBIT3c'); 
// reports_folder_id = id of folder where csv reports are saved
var fi = fSource.getFilesByName('WorkFlowDataStoreDOS.csv'); 
// latest report file
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.openById('13U6UAMH8r0fQsWwCE6rSMbLlxCNrlcKAmYxD9YKuG1Q'); 
// data_sheet_id = id of spreadsheet that holds the data to be updated with new report data

if ( fi.hasNext() ) { // proceed if "report.csv" file exists in the reports folder
var file = fi.next();
var csv = file.getBlob().getDataAsString();
var csvData = CSVToArray(csv); // see below for CSVToArray function
var newsheet = ss.insertSheet('NEWDATA'); // create a 'NEWDATA' sheet to store imported data
// loop through csv data array and insert (append) as rows into 'NEWDATA' sheet
for ( var i=0, lenCsv=csvData.length; i<lenCsv; i++ ) {
  newsheet.getRange(i+1, 1, 1, csvData[i].length).setValues(new Array(csvData[i]));
}

/*
** report data is now in 'NEWDATA' sheet in the spreadsheet - process it as needed,
** then delete 'NEWDATA' sheet using ss.deleteSheet(newsheet)
*/

var centralStore = ss.getSheetByName ("CentralStore");
var newData = ss.getSheetByName ("NEWDATA");
var calRange = newData.getRange("A1:Y5001");
var calPaste = centralStore.getRange("A1");  

calRange.copyTo(calPaste, {contentsOnly: true})

ss.setActiveSheet(ss.getSheetByName("NEWDATA"));
ss.deleteActiveSheet()
ss.setActiveSheet(ss.getSheetByName("CentralStore"));

}
};


// http://www.bennadel.com/blog/1504-Ask-Ben-Parsing-CSV-Strings-With-Javascript-Exec-Regular-Expression-Command.htm
// This will parse a delimited string into an array of
// arrays. The default delimiter is the comma, but this
// can be overriden in the second argument.




function CSVToArray( strData, strDelimiter ) {
// Check to see if the delimiter is defined. If not,
// then default to COMMA.
strDelimiter = (strDelimiter || ",");

// Create a regular expression to parse the CSV values.
var objPattern = new RegExp(
(
  // Delimiters.
    "(\\" + strDelimiter + "|\\r?\\n|\\r|^)" +

    // Quoted fields.
    "(?:\"([^\"]*(?:\"\"[^\"]*)*)\"|" +

    // Standard fields.
    "([^\"\\" + strDelimiter + "\\r\\n]*))"
  ),
  "gi"
);

// Create an array to hold our data. Give the array
// a default empty first row.
var arrData = [[]];

// Create an array to hold our individual pattern
// matching groups.
var arrMatches = null;

// Keep looping over the regular expression matches
// until we can no longer find a match.
while (arrMatches = objPattern.exec( strData )){

// Get the delimiter that was found.
var strMatchedDelimiter = arrMatches[ 1 ];

// Check to see if the given delimiter has a length
// (is not the start of string) and if it matches
// field delimiter. If id does not, then we know
// that this delimiter is a row delimiter.
if (
  strMatchedDelimiter.length &&
  (strMatchedDelimiter != strDelimiter)
){

  // Since we have reached a new row of data,
  // add an empty row to our data array.
  arrData.push( [] );

}

// Now that we have our delimiter out of the way,
// let's check to see which kind of value we
// captured (quoted or unquoted).
if (arrMatches[ 2 ]){

  // We found a quoted value. When we capture
  // this value, unescape any double quotes.
  var strMatchedValue = arrMatches[ 2 ].replace(
    new RegExp( "\"\"", "g" ),
    "\""
  );

} else {

  // We found a non-quoted value.
  var strMatchedValue = arrMatches[ 3 ];

}

// Now that we have our value string, let's add
// it to the data array.
arrData[ arrData.length - 1 ].push( strMatchedValue );
}

// Return the parsed data.
return( arrData );
};