I need to loop through all rows/columns in a sheet and remove rows contain certain words. Ideally, I would search through the sheet using a regular expression, but just finding a string would help get me moving. I'm seeing a lot of posts on Stack Overflow about finding and deleting empty rows, but can't find anything about searching an entire sheet and deleting a row if found.

This is what I have so far:

/* Delete rows */
function deleteRows() {
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var rows = sheet.getDataRange();
  var numRows = rows.getNumRows();
  var values = rows.getValues();

  var deleted = 0;  // Counter (don't need if we loop backwards)
  var regExp = new RegExp('word');

  for (var row = 0; row < values.length; row++) {
    var regExpMatch = values[row][1].match(regExp);
    if (regExpMatch.length > 0) {
      sheet.deleteRow(row + 1 - deleted);
      deleted++;
    }
  }
  SpreadsheetApp.flush();
};

However this only searches Column B, and it throws an error "TypeError: Cannot read property 'length' from null" even though "word" exists in Column B in my spreadsheet. And if I do a simpler version like:

/* Delete rows */
function deleteRows() {
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
  var rows = sheet.getDataRange();
  var numRows = rows.getNumRows();
  var values = rows.getValues();

  var deleted = 0;  // Counter (don't need if we loop backwards)

  for (var row = 0; row < values.length; row++) {
    if (values[row][1].search("WordThatExistsInOneRow")) {
      sheet.deleteRow(row);
      deleted++;
    }
  }
  SpreadsheetApp.flush();
};

It starts deleting every row, even if "WordThatExistsInOneRow" only shows up in 1 row.

I need to loop through all rows/columns in a sheet and remove rows contain certain words. Ideally, I would search through the sheet using a regular expression, but just finding a string would help get me moving. I'm seeing a lot of posts on Stack Overflow about finding and deleting empty rows, but can't find anything about searching an entire sheet and deleting a row if found.

This is what I have so far:

/* Delete rows */
function deleteRows() {
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var rows = sheet.getDataRange();
  var numRows = rows.getNumRows();
  var values = rows.getValues();

  var deleted = 0;  // Counter (don't need if we loop backwards)
  var regExp = new RegExp('word');

  for (var row = 0; row < values.length; row++) {
    var regExpMatch = values[row][1].match(regExp);
    if (regExpMatch.length > 0) {
      sheet.deleteRow(row + 1 - deleted);
      deleted++;
    }
  }
  SpreadsheetApp.flush();
};

However this only searches Column B, and it throws an error "TypeError: Cannot read property 'length' from null" even though "word" exists in Column B in my spreadsheet. And if I do a simpler version like:

/* Delete rows */
function deleteRows() {
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
  var rows = sheet.getDataRange();
  var numRows = rows.getNumRows();
  var values = rows.getValues();

  var deleted = 0;  // Counter (don't need if we loop backwards)

  for (var row = 0; row < values.length; row++) {
    if (values[row][1].search("WordThatExistsInOneRow")) {
      sheet.deleteRow(row);
      deleted++;
    }
  }
  SpreadsheetApp.flush();
};

It starts deleting every row, even if "WordThatExistsInOneRow" only shows up in 1 row.

• javascript
• google-apps-script
• google-sheets
• spreadsheet
• google-sheets-api

Share Improve this question Follow edited Feb 23, 2015 at 0:59 eddyparkinson 3,70044 gold badges2727 silver badges5353 bronze badges asked Feb 11, 2015 at 18:49 KeithKeith 67333 gold badges1313 silver badges2828 bronze badges

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1 Answer 1

Sorted by: Reset to default 4 +50

You have not wrote your loop logic correctly, you need to loop over each row then each column in that row and then assign the row index for deletion which must be performed in revere order. Try this:

/* Delete rows */
function deleteRows() {
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
  var rows = sheet.getDataRange();
  var numRows = rows.getNumRows();
  var values = rows.getValues();

  var toDelete = [];

  for (var row = 0; row < values.length; row++) {
    for(var column = 0;column<values[row].length;column++){
      if (values[row][column].indexOf("WordThatExistsInOneRow") > -1){
        toDelete.push(row);
      }
    }
  }

  for(var deleteRow = toDelete.length-1; deleteRow >= 0;deleteRow--){
    sheet.deleteRow(toDelete[deleteRow]+1);
  }

  SpreadsheetApp.flush();
};