CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptgoogle-apps-scriptgoogle-sheets
Anders Kilmark
Anders Kilmark

Reputation: 35

How to Push Split Google Spreadsheet Cell Value to Adjacent Cell

I am using a modified version of Martin Hawksey's Google Apps Script that takes the data in one of my sheets in a Google Spreadsheet another sheet makes a new row for each entry in my event description column (as separated by a comma - i.e. cell D2="Description 1, Description 2, Description 3, etc.). While this works very well, I would like for it to do one more function - I would like for it to take the last entry in the event description (perhaps separated from the others by a semicolon instead of a comma) and push it into the adjacent cell once and only once for each unique event while deleting the semicolon or other separator. I've tried a number of approaches, but being new to Google Apps Script, I am not having success.

function splitColumnAndRepeatRows(anArray, splitColumnIndex) {
  var output = [];
  for (i in anArray){ // for each row
    var splitArray = anArray[i][splitColumnIndex].toString().split(","); // split values in specified column
    for (j in splitArray){ // for each split cell value
      if(splitArray[j]=="" && j>=1)
        continue;
      var row = anArray[i].slice(0); // take a copy of source row
      row[splitColumnIndex] = alltrim(splitArray[j]); // replace comma separated value with current split value
      output.push(row); // push new row to output
    }
  }
  return output;
}

function alltrim(str) {
  return str.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '');
}

Essentially, this is what I'm trying to do - turn this:

Date     Client     County     Description
9/21/14  12345      Greene     Location 1, Location 2, Location 3; Y
9/24/14  54321      Brown      Location 1, Location 2; X

into this:

Date     Client     County     Description     Time
9/21/14  12345      Greene     Location 1
9/21/14  12345      Greene     Location 2
9/21/14  12345      Greene     Location 3      Y
9/24/14  54321      Brown      Location 1
9/24/14  54321      Brown      Location 2      X

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1290

Answers (1)

azawaza
azawaza

Reputation: 3094

This edited splitColumnAndRepeatRows() function will do what you are after, with an added bonus that any (not just the last one) comma-separated item in your column can be a ;-delimited list and will be separated into 2 cells.

function splitColumnAndRepeatRows(anArray, splitColumnIndex) {
  var output = [];
  for (var i in anArray){ // for each row
    var splitArray = anArray[i][splitColumnIndex].toString().split(","); // split values in specified column
    for (var j in splitArray){ // for each split cell value
      if(splitArray[j]=="" && j>=1)
        continue;
      var row = anArray[i].slice(0); // take a copy of source row
      var trimmedString = alltrim(splitArray[j]);
      var subArray = trimmedString.split(";"); // split current item of specified column at ; 
      if ( subArray.length > 1 ) { // if current item is a ;-delimited list (now split into an array)
        row[splitColumnIndex] = alltrim(subArray[0]); // replace comma-separated value with first item of ;-delimited array
        row[splitColumnIndex+1] = alltrim(subArray[1]); // append second item of ;-delimited list as new cell to row
      }
      else {
        row[splitColumnIndex] = trimmedString; // replace comma separated value with current split value
        row[splitColumnIndex+1] = ""; // append empty cell to row
      }
      output.push(row); // push new row to output
    }
  }
  return output;
}

It can turn something like this:

9/21/14  12345      Greene     Location 1; A, Location 2, Location 3; B
9/24/14  54321      Brown      Location 1, Location 2; C

Into this:

9/21/14  12345      Greene     Location 1      A
9/21/14  12345      Greene     Location 2
9/21/14  12345      Greene     Location 3      B
9/24/14  54321      Brown      Location 1
9/24/14  54321      Brown      Location 2      C

Upvotes: 1

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