I am working on getting filters set through Google Apps Script. From my research I have come to the conclusion that although .setVisibleValues()
is listed as available, it is not yet supported. The only way to programmatically filter a column would be to use .setHiddenValues()
. This presents a challenge because there can be hundreds of values that will need to be hidden.
In the example code below I have chosen to exclude values One, Two, Three, Five, Six, and Seven in column 12 (L). If there are only seven values in that column, this should return a filtered data set with only "Four" in column L.
function testFilter() {
var spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
var criteria = SpreadsheetApp.newFilterCriteria()
.setHiddenValues(['One', 'Two', 'Three', 'Five', 'Six', 'Seven'])
.build();
spreadsheet.getActiveSheet().getFilter().setColumnFilterCriteria(12, criteria);
};
If using .setHiddenValues()
is the only way, my thought was to build a list of items to exclude that do not include a certain value or values. In other words, if the values in column L do not equal 'Four' include in the list of .setHiddenValues()
. I imagine this will require a loop but I wanted to see what the thoughts were. I am fairly new to GAS so I am not sure how to build an efficient loop that will accomplish this. Is there a better way to set filters?
Yes. You can use splice()
method. You can change this from:
var criteria = SpreadsheetApp.newFilterCriteria()
.setHiddenValues(['One', 'Two', 'Three', 'Five', 'Six', 'Seven'])
.build();
to:
var sh = spreadsheet.getActiveSheet();
var filterRange = sh.getRange('L1:L'+sh.getLastRow()).getValues(); //Get L column values
var hidden = getHiddenValueArray(filterRange,["four"]); //get values except four
var filtercriteria = SpreadsheetApp.newFilterCriteria().setHiddenValues(hidden).build();
//flattens and strips column L values of all the values in the visible value array
function getHiddenValueArray(colValueArr,visibleValueArr){
var flatArr = colValueArr.map(function(e){return e[0];}); //Flatten column L
visibleValueArr.forEach(function(e){ //For each value in visible array
var i = flatArr.indexOf(e.toString());
while (i != -1){ //if flatArray has the visible value
flatArr.splice(i,1); //splice(delete) it
i = flatArr.indexOf(e.toString());
}
});
return flatArr;
}
Another method is to use filter()
. This will also remove duplicates:
function getHiddenValueArray(colValueArr,visibleValueArr){
var flatUniqArr = colValueArr.map(function(e){return e[0];})
.filter(function(e,i,a){return (a.indexOf(e.toString())==i && visibleValueArr.indexOf(e.toString()) ==-1); })
return flatUniqArr;
}
Using I'-'I's method worked but I found that filtering on numeric columns did not work. The solution was answered on this question.
Here is the solution provided by Tanaike. Replace the getHiddenValueArray function with this:
function getHiddenValueArray(colValueArr,visibleValueArr){
var flatUniqArr = colValueArr.map(function(e){return e[0];})
.filter(function(e,i,a){return (a.indexOf(e) == i && visibleValueArr.indexOf(e) == -1); }) //Handles numeric and string values.
return flatUniqArr;
}
I have also created the following to search for a string within a cell. The above code seems to look for exact matches. I'm sure there is a way to combine the two and there may be a way to improve the following, but it works. Feel free to comment if there is a better way.
function getHiddenValueArrayStringSearch(colValueArr,visibleValueStr){
var newArray= []
for (var i = 0; i < colValueArr.length; i++) {
if(colValueArr[i].toString().toLowerCase().indexOf(visibleValueStr.toString().toLowerCase()) == -1){newArray.push(colValueArr[i]);}
}
return newArray
}
In some cases I want an exact match (first solution). Others I don't (second solution).