Merge multiple sheets (dynamically) in a Google Sheets spreadsheet

Question

I have a Google Spreadsheet with 3 sheets containing data from different countries ( Country1 , Country2 , Country3 ) and a 4th sheet ( Summary ) that is supposed to append these together. The columns are the same in all sheets.

I know already that I can combine them like this:

=QUERY({Country1!A2:G;Country2!A2:G;Country3!A2:G}; "SELECT * WHERE Col1 IS NOT NULL")

However, I need a way to combine an arbitrary amount of sheets together, without modifying the formula. So, if Country4 gets added, this should be appended as well. How can I do that?

If it helps, I have a Settings sheet with a column that contains all the names of the countries (and therefore country sheet names). I have a script that dynamically generates new sheets if a country is added in the Settings sheet. If necessary, this script can also update the formula in the Summary sheet.

Answer 1

Answer:

You can dynamically create the formula for this using an attached Script.

Code:

function generateFormula() {
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var sheets = ss.getSheets();
  var formula = "=QUERY({";
  for (var i = 0; i < sheets.length; i++) {
    var name = sheets[i].getName();
    if (name != "Settings" && name != "Summary") {
      formula = formula + name + "!A2:G;";
    }
  }
  formula = formula.slice(0, -1) + '}, "SELECT * WHERE Col1 IS NOT NULL", 0)'
  ss.getSheetByName("Summary").getRange("A1").setFormula(formula);
}

This is just one possible way of doing this, though I do not believe it is possible to make it arbitrary without a script. Either way, I hope this is helpful to you!

References:

• Docs Editors Help - QUERY function
• Google Apps Script - Method Range.setFormula(formula)