CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptsortinggoogle-apps-scriptgmail-api
SL8t7
SL8t7

Reputation: 647

GmailApp, getDate and Sort

I have this script that pulls dates for unread messages in Gmail (the idea being that I want to get the date of the oldest unread email)

function someFunction () {
    var oldSearchQuery = "in:Inbox is:Unread"
    var oldThread = GmailApp.search(oldSearchQuery, 0, 500);
    for (var inc = 0; inc < oldThread.length; inc++) {
    oldThread.forEach(function(messages){
    messages.getMessages().forEach(function(msg){
    var date = msg.getDate()
    Logger.log(date)
    });

However, I want to sort the dates to get the oldest (or, if anyone knows of a better way, just get the oldest unread email). I tried to use sort and reverse:

    Script as above but with ----
    var date = msg.getDate()
    date.sort();
    date.reverse();
    Logger.log(date)
    });

But it doesn't like it as the values returned by getDate don't play nicely with sort. Anyone got any ideas?

Edit ----------------------------------------------------------

Updated to show current script and output:

  for (var inc = 0; inc < oldThread.length; inc++) {
    oldThread.forEach(function(messages) {
      messages.getMessages()
      .forEach(function(msg) {
        var dates = msg.getDate()
        var empty = []
        empty.push(dates);
        var sortedDateList = empty.sort(function(a,b){
          return new Date(a) - new Date(b); 
        });
        Logger.log(sortedDateList)
      });

Outputs as:

[18-06-21 13:49:42:549 BST] [Wed Jun 20 02:08:24 GMT+01:00 2018]
[18-06-21 13:49:42:729 BST] [Tue Jun 19 16:15:19 GMT+01:00 2018]
[18-06-21 13:49:42:734 BST] [Wed Jun 20 02:08:24 GMT+01:00 2018]
[18-06-21 13:49:42:739 BST] [Tue Jun 19 16:15:19 GMT+01:00 2018]

I would be expecting to see:

[18-06-21 13:49:42:729 BST] [Tue Jun 19 16:15:19 GMT+01:00 2018]
[18-06-21 13:49:42:734 BST] [Wed Jun 20 02:08:24 GMT+01:00 2018]
[18-06-21 13:49:42:739 BST] [Tue Jun 19 16:15:19 GMT+01:00 2018]
[18-06-21 13:49:42:734 BST] [Wed Jun 20 02:08:24 GMT+01:00 2018]

Also, no idea why it is returning 2 lots of dates per mail, looks like its duplicating itself?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2274

Answers (2)

tehhowch
tehhowch

Reputation: 9872

This isn't meant to be a full solution to your question, but instead to demonstrate using Array functions to get information from messages. 

function getThreadStartDate_(thread) {
  const messages = thread.getMessages();

  var now = new Date();
  var start = messages.reduce(function (earliest, msg) {
    var msgStart = msg.getDate();
    return (msgStart < earliest) ? msgStart : earliest;
  }, now);
  return start;
}

function getEarliestMatchingThread_(query) {
  const threads = GmailApp.search(query);
  // Sort descending, so we can call pop() to access the earliest one.
  threads.sort(function (a, b) {
    return getThreadStartDate_(b) - getThreadStartDate_(a);
  });
  return threads.pop();
}

Example use of the above:

function foo() {
  const oldest = getEarliestMatchingThread_("your query here");
  Logger.log(oldest.getFirstMessageSubject());
}

Note that there is an implicit assumption that the query you make is not unmanageably large (if it is, Gmail will throw an error). I also make the assumption that at least one thread matches the query. I recommend not relying on those assumptions :)

References:

Upvotes: 2

Jai Prak
Jai Prak

Reputation: 3410

You can get the list the dates for unread messages into an array then you can just run sort method on it. For example, I have an array of dates like this which is same as msg.getDate() as you have shown in the code. I have changed day, month, year and time to make sure it works for all.

var dateList = [ 'Tue Dec 18 22:14:59 GMT-11:00 2018',
              'Wed Jul 18 22:14:59 GMT-11:00 2017',
              'Tue Jun 12 02:14:59 GMT-11:00 2018',
              'Thu Apr 12 21:14:59 GMT-11:00 2019',
              'Thu Jun 14 22:14:00 GMT-11:00 2018',
              'Fri Jan 12 22:14:59 GMT-11:00 2018' ]

Now you can apply sort on this array,

var sortedDateList = dateList.sort(function(a,b){
  return new Date(a) - new Date(b); 
});

It will give this output:

[Wed Jul 18 22:14:59 GMT-11:00 2017,
 Fri Jan 12 22:14:59 GMT-11:00 2018,
 Tue Jun 12 02:14:59 GMT-11:00 2018,
 Thu Jun 14 22:14:00 GMT-11:00 2018,
 Tue Dec 18 22:14:59 GMT-11:00 2018,
 Thu Apr 12 21:14:59 GMT-11:00 2019]

This output is in ascending order. Just swap a and b to get the result in descending order. You can see output by Logger.log(sortedDateList);.

Upvotes: 2

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