Get or Create a Sheet by Name

Need a tab that might not exist yet? This helper returns the sheet if it's there, or inserts it and returns the new one — no null checks scattered through your bootstrap.

What you'll need

A Spreadsheet object (getActiveSpreadsheet(), openById(), etc.)
The exact tab name you want

How to use this snippet

function getOrCreateSheet(ss, name) {
  var sheet = ss.getSheetByName(name);
  if (!sheet) {
    sheet = ss.insertSheet(name);
  }
  return sheet;
}

function ensureImportTab() {
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var sheet = getOrCreateSheet(ss, 'Import');
  if (sheet.getLastRow() === 0) {
    sheet.appendRow(['timestamp', 'status', 'notes']);
  }
  return sheet;
}

Tips:

Tab names are case-sensitive — 'Import' and 'import' are different sheets.
If you care about position, pass an index as the second arg to insertSheet(name, index).

Happy Coding!

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Tags

NitroGAS Chrome Extension

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