Using the google drive API to download a spreadsheet in csv format

Question

I\'m sorry if this is an obvious question, I\'m still pretty new to the API. I\'m using the python drive api library, and trying to download a google spreadsheet as a csv.

Answer 1

Not sure if it's what the OP needed, but in the new Google Sheets version it seems that it became a little hard to hot link a csv version of your spreadsheet.

In case you are interested in a Google apps script that will export all sheets in a spreadsheet to individual csv files (instead of downloading each one individually), Here you go:

function onOpen() {
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var csvMenuEntries = [{name: "export as csv files", functionName: "saveAsCSV"}];
  ss.addMenu("csv", csvMenuEntries);
};

function saveAsCSV() {
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var sheets = ss.getSheets();
  // create a folder from the name of the spreadsheet
  var folder = DocsList.createFolder(ss.getName().toLowerCase().replace(/ /g,'_') + '_csv_' + new Date().getTime());
  for (var i = 0 ; i < sheets.length ; i++) {
    var sheet = sheets[i];
    // append ".csv" extension to the sheet name
    fileName = sheet.getName() + ".csv";
    // convert all available sheet data to csv format
    var csvFile = convertRangeToCsvFile_(fileName, sheet);
    // create a file in the Docs List with the given name and the csv data
    folder.createFile(fileName, csvFile);
  }
  Browser.msgBox('Files are waiting in a folder named ' + folder.getName());
}

function convertRangeToCsvFile_(csvFileName, sheet) {
  // get available data range in the spreadsheet
  var activeRange = sheet.getDataRange();
  try {
    var data = activeRange.getValues();
    var csvFile = undefined;

    // loop through the data in the range and build a string with the csv data
    if (data.length > 1) {
      var csv = "";
      for (var row = 0; row < data.length; row++) {
        for (var col = 0; col < data[row].length; col++) {
          if (data[row][col].toString().indexOf(",") != -1) {
            data[row][col] = "\"" + data[row][col] + "\"";
          }
        }

        // join each row's columns
        // add a carriage return to end of each row, except for the last one
        if (row < data.length-1) {
          csv += data[row].join(",") + "\r\n";
        }
        else {
          csv += data[row];
        }
      }
      csvFile = csv;
    }
    return csvFile;
  }
  catch(err) {
    Logger.log(err);
    Browser.msgBox(err);
  }
}

Note: This script uses the DocsList.createFile() method, which is only available for Google Apps accounts.

If you need further explanation, go here: http://drzon.net/export-all-google-sheets-to-csv/