How do I determine if a column is hidden in Google Spreadsheet using scripts?

Question

I'm trying to write a function for Google Spreadsheet that locates the first and last column of a group. It then hides the group, or shows it if it's already hidden.

However, I haven't been able to find a way to determine whether a column is hidden or not. I haven't been able to find anything anything on Google's Class Sheet page https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/spreadsheet/sheet, and I haven't found an equivalent to Excel's .hidden

getColumnWidth(column) returns the unhidden column width even when it's hidden.

Here's my code:

function hideShowColumns(startCol, endCol) { 
  //endCol is one column past the last data set that should be hidden
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName("Transposed Data");
  //import the data from the Column Headers
  var colHeaderData = sheet.getRange(1, 1, 2, sheet.getMaxColumns()).getValues(); 
  var startColNum = 0;
  var endColNum = 0;

  // This section searches for the column names in the header rows and returns their column number
  for (var i =0; i < 2; ++i) {
    for (var j = 0; j < colHeaderData[0].length; ++j) {
      if (colHeaderData[i][j] == startCol) 
        startColNum = j;
      if (colHeaderData[i][j] == endCol) 
        endColNum = j;
    }
  }

  //This is the wrong command getColumnWidth doesn't change if column is hidden
  if (sheet.getColumnWidth(startColNum + 1) != 0) {
    sheet.hideColumns(startColNum + 2, endColNum - startColNum - 1);
    Logger.log(sheet.getColumnWidth(startColNum + 2));
    return;
  }

  //This is the wrong command getColumnWidth doesn't change if column is hidden
  if (sheet.getColumnWidth(startColNum + 1) == 0) { 
    for (var j = startColNum + 1; j < endColNum - 1; ++j) {
      sheet.unhideColumn(j);
      Logger.log(sheet.getColumnWidth(startColNum + 2));     
    }
    return;
  }
}

Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

The new (as of 2018) api for this is: isColumnHiddenByUser(columnPosition)

Returns whether the given column is hidden by the user.

var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var sheet = ss.getSheets()[0];

// Columns start at 1
Logger.log(sheet.isColumnHiddenByUser(1));

Answer 2

Unfortunately there is no Google Apps Script method that will return whether a column or row is hidden or not. You might like to star the issue opened for it, as a way of a. receiving updates about the issue, and b. "signing the petition", so to speak.

https://code.google.com/p/google-apps-script-issues/issues/detail?id=195&q=hidden%20column&colspec=Stars%20Opened%20ID%20Type%20Status%20Summary%20Component%20Owner