I'm using Google App Script for the first time. I'm using it on a Google Doc spreadsheet.
I'm trying very simple functions, just to learn the basics. For example this works:
function test_hello() {
return 'hello';
}
But I'm puzzled by this simple one :
function test_today() {
return today();
}
It makes an #ERROR!
wherever I use it.
And when I put my cursor on it, it says :
error : ReferenceError: "today" is not defined.
While the today()
function works when used directly in the spreadsheet.
Does this mean that in scripts, I cannot use spreadsheet built-in functions? Is there any elegant way around this?
Some spreadsheet functions are quite useful to me (I like weekday()
for example).
A non-elegant way could be to create columns to calculate intermediate values that I need, and that can be calculated with spreadsheet functions. But I'd rather avoid something this dirty and cumbersome.
Google Apps Script is a subset of JavaScript, spreadsheet functions are currently not supported. For example, if you want to create a function that returns today's date you should write :
function test_today(){
return new Date()
}// note that this will eventually return a value in milliseconds , you'll have to set the cell format to 'date' or 'time' or both ;-)
syntax is the same as with sheet functions : =test_today()
see tutorial
There are many internet ressources on javascript, one of the most useful I found is w3school