How to evaluate a spreadsheet formula within a custom function?

Question

In a spreadsheet I can enter =SIN(45)+123 in a cell, and it will be evaluated.

How can I evaluate spreadsheet functions within a custom function, something like an "eval" function that would work like this :

function myFunc() {
  return Sheet.eval("=SIN(45)+123")
}

is it possible ?

Note that I don't care about the SIN function in particular, what I want is to have access to the complete arsenal of spreadsheet functions (PMT, QUERY, NPER, etc..)

Answer 1

Spreadsheet functions from Apps-Script

Not possible - This has been asked many times. Suggest you check the google-apps-script issue list to see if anything has changed. But last I checked, there is no way to do it, and they have no plan to add it. https://code.google.com/p/google-apps-script-issues/issues/list

Ethercalc - java script spreadsheet formulas

If you need to, you can always copy the code from "ethercalc" as it has a java script versions of the spreadsheet formulas. https://github.com/audreyt/ethercalc

Answer 2

I got this working. Using set value will do the trick. Thus something like this:

function MyFun1(){
  SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveSheet().getRange('A1').setValue(Myfun2())
}

function MyFun2(){
   return "=SIN(45)+123"
}

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

I know this is an old question, but it might help someone. just assign the formula to a range, then grab the value.

//asign a formula to the range
var range = sheet.getRange("A1").setFormula("=SUM(D1:D100)");
//get the result
var result  = range.getValue();
//clean up
range.setFormula("");     

Answer 4

I think you need to divide this issue up into two different concerns.

Do you want to grab data that is already on the spreadsheet, perform a calculation, and then print a result, or do you want to use the sin() function on calculations in code unrelated to the data in the spreadsheet?

If you are trying to do the latter, you should be able to reference spreadsheet functions by using Math.sin() in your Google Apps Script. For more information on using the sin() function in JavaScript, check this post out: http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/jsref_sin.asp

If you are trying to do the former, then what you should do is use a readRows() function (more information available here: http://gassnippets.blogspot.com/2012/11/create-your-first-google-apps-script.html) to load your spreadsheet data into a variable (or variables) in memory, perform your calculations, and print the final result out to the spreadsheet using a similar function.

Let me know if this helps.

Answer 5

I came across this question in an attempt to find a way to evaluate part of a function like it is possible in Excel.

Here is my dirty workaround - instead of outputting the result in an msgbox, you could simply store the value or displayvalue of the activecell in a variable and use it to your liking.

Notice however, that the function will temporarily overwrite whatever you have in your currently selected cell and it will need to recalculate the sheet before the result is available. Hence it's not a viable solution if you need to evaluate multiple cell values.

function evalPart() {
  var ui = SpreadsheetApp.getUi();
  myPart = Browser.inputBox("Enter formula part:", ui.ButtonSet.OK_CANCEL);
  if (myPart != "cancel") {
    myActiveCell = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveCell();
    myBackup = myActiveCell.getFormula();
    myActiveCell.setFormula(myPart);
    Browser.msgBox("Result of \\n \\n" + myPart + " \\n \\n " + myActiveCell.getDisplayValue());
    myActiveCell.setFormula(myBackup);
  }
}

Answer 6

I don't know if it's possible with high-level functions. However, it's possible with some common and easy-to-understand functions like (sum, subtract etc).

Following is the code I used to set values after the calculation is done in scripting itself.

function MyFun1() {
SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveSheet().getRange('A1').setValue(MyFun2());
}

function MyFun2() {
var one = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName("Dashboard");
var two = one.getRange('A2').getValue();
var three = one.getRange('A3').getValue(); return two*three;
}

Don't forget to add a trigger "onEdit" on Myfun1() to automatically update the return value.