Query Importrange in Google Sheets Not Importing Correctly

Question

We are using Google Forms to collect data on our students. They use the same Google Form for all students, but as part of the form, they are asked the students name.

The data that ends up being collected you can see on the tab Form Responses 1 on the Google Sheet linked here .

I am attempting to use ImportRange to create a tab for each of the students. The formula that I am using for just one of the students is...

=QUERY(IMPORTRANGE("1nJANDP1fiQunxfxEf-EjwJrnIRICv6kLhYYY9XBXtD4", "Form Responses 1!A:I"),"SELECT * WHERE Col3 = 'Adam N.'")

You can take a look at the tab called Adam N. and you'll see it is kind of working.

One thing that doesn't seem to be working is when there is a text value in columns EI, that text value doesn't end up showing on the Adam N. tab. Any ideas how I can get both the numbers and the text values to show up?

The other thing that seems to be a problem is the fact that on the Adam N. tab, the very first row has the same headers as the Form Responses 1 tab, but it also has the very first line of data. Any way to remove that?

Answer 1

Importrange is not needed since you are 'importing' from within the same spreadsheet. Also, I'd recommend using the (optional) header argument in query().

It is often noted that users are tempted to mix data types within a column. The query() function will give undesirable output. If a column is intended for numeric values then only numerical values must reside in that column. Date columns must only contain dates and text columns only contain text values.

This does not mean that numbers cannot appear in a text column as long as they are in a text format. So it is important to plan the columns in a table to make sure this rule is maintained regardless if the data table is created manually or via submissions from a Google Form.

Generally, the query() function will assume the greater number of cell types in a column to be that data type. For example, if there are 100 numbers and 20 text values in the same column then a numeric value will be assumed for that column. There is a good chance the text values will just be ignored. One way to avoid this, would be to convert everything to text.

See if this works

=ArrayFormula(QUERY(to_text('Form Responses 1'!A:I),"WHERE Col3 = 'Adam N.'", 1))