Can I generate a file from Google Sheets script?

Question

I'm using Google Sheets to prototype a bunch of numerical data for something I'm doing.

Is there a way to export a subset to a text file?

Effectively, what I'm aiming to do is export a file I can include directly in the build for another project.

So is there a way to generate a text file for download?

Answer 1

If you have a Google Apps account, then you can use DocsList.createFile() to create the text file and save it in your documents list.

Section 3 of this tutorial shows how to save the selected range of a spreadsheet as a file in your documents list in CSV format. It could be modified pretty easily to save in a different format.

Answer 2

I have the texts of my project in some columns of a Google Spreadsheet. I took this script tutorial from Google and modified it to select only a specific range (in the example below it's D4:D).

It generates a CSV file in your Drive root folder. It still doesn't download the file - I'm working on that now.

Hope it helps!

/* The code below is a modification from this tutorial: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/articles/docslist_tutorial#section3 */

    /* The code below is a modification from this tutorial: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/articles/docslist_tutorial#section3 */

function onOpen() {
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var csvMenuEntries = [{name: "Save as CSV file", functionName: "saveAsCSV"}];
  ss.addMenu("CSV", csvMenuEntries);
}

function saveAsCSV() {
  
  // Name the file
  fileName = "quests.csv";
  // Convert the range data to CSV format
  var csvFile = convertRangeToCsvFile_(fileName);
  // Create a file in the root of my Drive with the given name and the CSV data
  DriveApp.createFile(fileName, csvFile);
}

function convertRangeToCsvFile_(csvFileName) {
  // Get from the spreadsheet the range to be exported 
  var rangeToExport = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getRange("D4:D");
  
  try {
    var dataToExport = rangeToExport.getValues();
    var csvFile = undefined;

    // Loop through the data in the range and build a string with the CSV data
    if (dataToExport.length > 1) {
      var csv = "";
      for (var row = 0; row < dataToExport.length; row++) {
        for (var col = 0; col < dataToExport[row].length; col++) {
          if (dataToExport[row][col].toString().indexOf(",") != -1) {
            //dataToExport[row][col] = "\"" + dataToExport[row][col] + "\"";
            dataToExport[row][col] = dataToExport[row][col];
          }
        }

        // Join each row's columns
        // Add a carriage return to end of each row, except for the last one
        if (row < dataToExport.length-1) {
          csv += dataToExport[row].join(",") + "\r\n";
        }
        else {
          csv += dataToExport[row];
        }
      }
      csvFile = csv;
    }
    return csvFile;
  }
  catch(err) {
    Logger.log(err);
    Browser.msgBox(err);
  }
}