googlesheets Basic Usage

First we load the googlesheets package and dplyr, from which we use the %>% pipe operator, among other things. googlesheets usage does not require you to use %>% though it was certainly designed to be pipe-friendly. This vignette uses pipes but you will find that all the examples in the help files use base R only.

Function naming convention

To play nicely with tab completion, we use consistent prefixes:

gs_ = all functions in the package.
gs_ws_ = all functions that operate on worksheets or tabs within a spreadsheet.
gd_ = something to do with Google Drive, usually has a gs_ synonym, might one day migrate to a Drive client.

List your Google Sheets

The gs_ls() function returns a data frame of the sheets you would see in your Google Sheets home screen: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/. This should include sheets that you own and may also show sheets owned by others but that you are permitted to access, if you have visited the sheet in the browser. Expect a prompt to authenticate yourself in the browser at this point (more below re: auth).

(my_sheets <- gs_ls())
#> <tibble [73 x 10]>
#>                 sheet_title        author  perm version
#>                       <chr>         <chr> <chr>   <chr>
#> 1              #rhizo15 #tw     m.hawksey     r     new
#> 2   EasyTweetSheet - Shared     m.hawksey     r     new
#> 3               gas_mileage      woo.kara     r     new
#> 4  Individual-level admixt…       the.dfx     r     new
#> 5                  gap_copy      gspreadr    rw     new
#> 6                        yo      gspreadr    rw     new
#> 7                 xml2-test      gspreadr    rw     new
#> 8             cyrillic-test      gspreadr    rw     new
#> 9               TAGS v6.0ns     m.hawksey     r     new
#> 10 test-gs-jenny-4e752776f…      gspreadr    rw     new
#> ... with 63 more rows, and 6 more variables: updated <time>,
#>   sheet_key <chr>, ws_feed <chr>, alternate <chr>, self <chr>,
#>   alt_key <chr>
# (expect a prompt to authenticate with Google interactively HERE)
my_sheets %>% glimpse()
#> Observations: 73
#> Variables: 10
#> $ sheet_title (chr) "#rhizo15 #tw", "EasyTweetSheet - Shared", "gas_mi...
#> $ author      (chr) "m.hawksey", "m.hawksey", "woo.kara", "the.dfx", "...
#> $ perm        (chr) "r", "r", "r", "r", "rw", "rw", "rw", "rw", "r", "...
#> $ version     (chr) "new", "new", "new", "new", "new", "new", "new", "...
#> $ updated     (time) 2016-06-19 14:41:36, 2016-06-18 17:11:58, 2016-06...
#> $ sheet_key   (chr) "1oBQNnsMY8Qkuui6BAE8TnC1GphJS22Rodm3oVzbbemM", "1...
#> $ ws_feed     (chr) "https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/worksheets/...
#> $ alternate   (chr) "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oBQNnsMY8...
#> $ self        (chr) "https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/spreadsheet...
#> $ alt_key     (chr) NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA...

Get a Google Sheet to practice with

Don’t worry if you don’t have any suitable Google Sheets lying around! We’ve published a sheet for you to practice with and have built functions into googlesheets to help you access it. The example sheet holds some of the Gapminder data; feel free to visit the Sheet in the browser. The code below will put a copy of this sheet into your Drive, titled “Gapminder”.

gs_gap() %>% 
  gs_copy(to = "Gapminder")

If that seems to have worked, go check for a sheet named “Gapminder” in your Google Sheets home screen: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/.

You can also call gs_ls() again to see if the Gapminder sheet appears. Give it a regular expression to narrow the listing down, if you like::

gs_ls("Gapminder")
#> <tibble [1 x 10]>
#>   sheet_title   author  perm version             updated
#>         <chr>    <chr> <chr>   <chr>              <time>
#> 1   Gapminder gspreadr    rw     new 2015-03-23 20:59:10
#> ... with 5 more variables: sheet_key <chr>, ws_feed <chr>,
#>   alternate <chr>, self <chr>, alt_key <chr>

Register a Sheet

If you plan to consume data from a sheet or edit it, you must first register it. This is how googlesheets records important info about the sheet that is required downstream by the Google Sheets or Google Drive APIs. Once registered, you can print the result to get some basic info about the sheet.

googlesheets provides several registration functions. Specifying the sheet by title? Use gs_title(). By key? Use gs_key(). You get the idea.

We’re using the built-in functions gs_gap_key() and gs_gap_url() to produce the key and browser URL for the Gapminder example sheet, so you can see how this will play out with your own projects.

gap <- gs_title("Gapminder")
#> Sheet successfully identified: "Gapminder"
gap
#>                   Spreadsheet title: Gapminder
#>                  Spreadsheet author: gspreadr
#>   Date of googlesheets registration: 2016-06-25 02:40:24 GMT
#>     Date of last spreadsheet update: 2015-03-23 20:34:08 GMT
#>                          visibility: private
#>                         permissions: rw
#>                             version: new
#> 
#> Contains 5 worksheets:
#> (Title): (Nominal worksheet extent as rows x columns)
#> Africa: 625 x 6
#> Americas: 301 x 6
#> Asia: 397 x 6
#> Europe: 361 x 6
#> Oceania: 25 x 6
#> 
#> Key: 1HT5B8SgkKqHdqHJmn5xiuaC04Ngb7dG9Tv94004vezA
#> Browser URL: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HT5B8SgkKqHdqHJmn5xiuaC04Ngb7dG9Tv94004vezA/

# Need to access a sheet you do not own?
# Access it by key if you know it!
(GAP_KEY <- gs_gap_key())
#> [1] "1BzfL0kZUz1TsI5zxJF1WNF01IxvC67FbOJUiiGMZ_mQ"
third_party_gap <- GAP_KEY %>%
  gs_key()
#> Sheet successfully identified: "test-gs-gapminder"

# Need to access a sheet you do not own but you have a sharing link?
# Access it by URL!
(GAP_URL <- gs_gap_url())
#> [1] "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BzfL0kZUz1TsI5zxJF1WNF01IxvC67FbOJUiiGMZ_mQ/"
third_party_gap <- GAP_URL %>%
  gs_url()
#> Sheet-identifying info appears to be a browser URL.
#> googlesheets will attempt to extract sheet key from the URL.
#> Putative key: 1BzfL0kZUz1TsI5zxJF1WNF01IxvC67FbOJUiiGMZ_mQ
#> Sheet successfully identified: "test-gs-gapminder"

# Want to dig the key out of a URL?
# registration by key is the safest, long-run strategy
extract_key_from_url(GAP_URL)
#> [1] "1BzfL0kZUz1TsI5zxJF1WNF01IxvC67FbOJUiiGMZ_mQ"

# Worried that a spreadsheet's registration is out-of-date?
# Re-register it!
gap <- gap %>% gs_gs()
#> Sheet successfully identified: "Gapminder"

The registration functions gs_title(), gs_key(), gs_url(), and gs_gs() return a registered sheet as a googlesheet object, which is the first argument to practically every function in this package. Likewise, almost every function returns a freshly registered googlesheet object, ready to be stored or piped into the next command.

The utility function, extract_key_from_url(), helps you dig the key out of a browser URL. Registering via browser URL is fine, but registering by key is a better idea in the long-run.

Use gs_browse() to visit the Sheet corresponding to a registered googlesheet in your browser. Optionally, you can specify the worksheet of interest.

gap %>% gs_browse()
gap %>% gs_browse(ws = 2)
gap %>% gs_browse(ws = "Europe")

Inspect a Sheet

Once you’ve registered a Sheet, print it to get an overview of, e.g., its worksheets, their names, and dimensions. Use gs_ws_ls() to get worksheet names as a character vector.

gap
#>                   Spreadsheet title: test-gs-gapminder
#>                  Spreadsheet author: rpackagetest
#>   Date of googlesheets registration: 2016-06-25 02:40:30 GMT
#>     Date of last spreadsheet update: 2015-04-22 18:27:11 GMT
#>                          visibility: public
#>                         permissions: rw
#>                             version: new
#> 
#> Contains 5 worksheets:
#> (Title): (Nominal worksheet extent as rows x columns)
#> Africa: 625 x 6
#> Americas: 301 x 6
#> Asia: 397 x 6
#> Europe: 361 x 6
#> Oceania: 25 x 6
#> 
#> Key: 1BzfL0kZUz1TsI5zxJF1WNF01IxvC67FbOJUiiGMZ_mQ
#> Browser URL: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BzfL0kZUz1TsI5zxJF1WNF01IxvC67FbOJUiiGMZ_mQ/
gs_ws_ls(gap)
#> [1] "Africa"   "Americas" "Asia"     "Europe"   "Oceania"

Read all the data in one worksheet

gs_read() returns the contents of a worksheet as a data frame.

oceania <- gap %>%
  gs_read(ws = "Oceania")
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Oceania'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
oceania
#> <tibble [24 x 6]>
#>      country continent  year lifeExp      pop gdpPercap
#>        <chr>     <chr> <int>   <dbl>    <int>     <dbl>
#> 1  Australia   Oceania  1952   69.12  8691212  10039.60
#> 2  Australia   Oceania  1957   70.33  9712569  10949.65
#> 3  Australia   Oceania  1962   70.93 10794968  12217.23
#> 4  Australia   Oceania  1967   71.10 11872264  14526.12
#> 5  Australia   Oceania  1972   71.93 13177000  16788.63
#> 6  Australia   Oceania  1977   73.49 14074100  18334.20
#> 7  Australia   Oceania  1982   74.74 15184200  19477.01
#> 8  Australia   Oceania  1987   76.32 16257249  21888.89
#> 9  Australia   Oceania  1992   77.56 17481977  23424.77
#> 10 Australia   Oceania  1997   78.83 18565243  26997.94
#> ... with 14 more rows
str(oceania)
#> Classes 'tbl_df', 'tbl' and 'data.frame':    24 obs. of  6 variables:
#>  $ country  : chr  "Australia" "Australia" "Australia" "Australia" ...
#>  $ continent: chr  "Oceania" "Oceania" "Oceania" "Oceania" ...
#>  $ year     : int  1952 1957 1962 1967 1972 1977 1982 1987 1992 1997 ...
#>  $ lifeExp  : num  69.1 70.3 70.9 71.1 71.9 ...
#>  $ pop      : int  8691212 9712569 10794968 11872264 13177000 14074100 15184200 16257249 17481977 18565243 ...
#>  $ gdpPercap: num  10040 10950 12217 14526 16789 ...
glimpse(oceania)
#> Observations: 24
#> Variables: 6
#> $ country   (chr) "Australia", "Australia", "Australia", "Australia", ...
#> $ continent (chr) "Oceania", "Oceania", "Oceania", "Oceania", "Oceania...
#> $ year      (int) 1952, 1957, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992...
#> $ lifeExp   (dbl) 69.120, 70.330, 70.930, 71.100, 71.930, 73.490, 74.7...
#> $ pop       (int) 8691212, 9712569, 10794968, 11872264, 13177000, 1407...
#> $ gdpPercap (dbl) 10039.60, 10949.65, 12217.23, 14526.12, 16788.63, 18...

Read only certain cells

You can target specific cells via the range = argument. The simplest usage is to specify an Excel-like cell range, such as range = “D12:F15” or range = “R1C12:R6C15”. The cell rectangle can be specified in various other ways, using helper functions. It can be degenerate, i.e. open-ended.

gap %>% gs_read(ws = 2, range = "A1:D8")
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Americas'.
#> <tibble [7 x 4]>
#>     country continent  year lifeExp
#>       <chr>     <chr> <int>   <dbl>
#> 1 Argentina  Americas  1952  62.485
#> 2 Argentina  Americas  1957  64.399
#> 3 Argentina  Americas  1962  65.142
#> 4 Argentina  Americas  1967  65.634
#> 5 Argentina  Americas  1972  67.065
#> 6 Argentina  Americas  1977  68.481
#> 7 Argentina  Americas  1982  69.942
gap %>% gs_read(ws = "Europe", range = cell_rows(1:4))
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Europe'.
#> <tibble [3 x 6]>
#>   country continent  year lifeExp     pop gdpPercap
#>     <chr>     <chr> <int>   <dbl>   <int>     <dbl>
#> 1 Albania    Europe  1952   55.23 1282697  1601.056
#> 2 Albania    Europe  1957   59.28 1476505  1942.284
#> 3 Albania    Europe  1962   64.82 1728137  2312.889
gap %>% gs_read(ws = "Europe", range = cell_rows(100:103), col_names = FALSE)
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Europe'.
#> <tibble [4 x 6]>
#>        X1     X2    X3    X4      X5        X6
#>     <chr>  <chr> <int> <dbl>   <int>     <dbl>
#> 1 Finland Europe  1962 68.75 4491443  9371.843
#> 2 Finland Europe  1967 69.83 4605744 10921.636
#> 3 Finland Europe  1972 70.87 4639657 14358.876
#> 4 Finland Europe  1977 72.52 4738902 15605.423
gap %>% gs_read(ws = "Africa", range = cell_cols(1:4))
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Africa'.
#> <tibble [624 x 4]>
#>    country continent  year lifeExp
#>      <chr>     <chr> <int>   <dbl>
#> 1  Algeria    Africa  1952  43.077
#> 2  Algeria    Africa  1957  45.685
#> 3  Algeria    Africa  1962  48.303
#> 4  Algeria    Africa  1967  51.407
#> 5  Algeria    Africa  1972  54.518
#> 6  Algeria    Africa  1977  58.014
#> 7  Algeria    Africa  1982  61.368
#> 8  Algeria    Africa  1987  65.799
#> 9  Algeria    Africa  1992  67.744
#> 10 Algeria    Africa  1997  69.152
#> ... with 614 more rows
gap %>% gs_read(ws = "Asia", range = cell_limits(c(1, 4), c(5, NA)))
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Asia'.
#> <tibble [4 x 3]>
#>   lifeExp      pop gdpPercap
#>     <dbl>    <int>     <dbl>
#> 1  28.801  8425333  779.4453
#> 2  30.332  9240934  820.8530
#> 3  31.997 10267083  853.1007
#> 4  34.020 11537966  836.1971

Do you need more control?

googlesheets aims to match the interface of the readr package. See more below on how to pass more arguments via ... to control readr-style data ingest.
gs_read() is a wrapper that bundles together the most common methods to read data from the API and transform it for downstream use. Later sections discuss the underlying functions, in case you need to call them yourself.

Create a new Google Sheet

Here we use gs_new() to create a new Sheet de novo and populate it with a bit of the iris data:

boring_ss <- gs_new("boring", ws_title = "iris-gs_new", input = head(iris),
                    trim = TRUE, verbose = FALSE)
boring_ss %>% 
  gs_read()
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'iris-gs_new'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
#> <tibble [6 x 5]>
#>   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
#>          <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>
#> 1          5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa
#> 2          4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa
#> 3          4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
#> 4          4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa
#> 5          5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2  setosa
#> 6          5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4  setosa

Note how we store the returned value from gs_new() (and all other sheet editing functions). That’s because the registration info changes whenever we edit the sheet and we re-register it inside these functions, so this idiom will help you make sequential edits and queries to the same sheet.

You can copy an entire Sheet with gs_copy() and rename one with gs_rename().

Add a new worksheet to an existing Google Sheet

Use gs_ws_new() to add some mtcars data as a second worksheet to boring_ss.

boring_ss <- boring_ss %>% 
  gs_ws_new(ws_title = "mtcars-gs_ws_new", input = head(mtcars),
                    trim = TRUE, verbose = FALSE)
boring_ss %>% 
  gs_read(ws = 2)
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'mtcars-gs_ws_new'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
#> <tibble [6 x 11]>
#>     mpg   cyl  disp    hp  drat    wt  qsec    vs    am  gear  carb
#>   <dbl> <int> <int> <int> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <int> <int> <int> <int>
#> 1  21.0     6   160   110  3.90 2.620 16.46     0     1     4     4
#> 2  21.0     6   160   110  3.90 2.875 17.02     0     1     4     4
#> 3  22.8     4   108    93  3.85 2.320 18.61     1     1     4     1
#> 4  21.4     6   258   110  3.08 3.215 19.44     1     0     3     1
#> 5  18.7     8   360   175  3.15 3.440 17.02     0     0     3     2
#> 6  18.1     6   225   105  2.76 3.460 20.22     1     0     3     1

Rename or delete worksheets

We use gs_ws_delete() and gs_ws_rename() to delete the mtcars worksheet and rename the iris worksheets, respectively:

boring_ss <- boring_ss %>% 
  gs_ws_delete(ws = 2) %>% 
  gs_ws_rename(to = "iris")
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'mtcars-gs_ws_new'.
#> Worksheet "mtcars-gs_ws_new" deleted from sheet "boring".
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'iris-gs_new'.
#> Sheet successfully identified: "boring"
#> Worksheet "iris-gs_new" renamed to "iris".
boring_ss
#>                   Spreadsheet title: boring
#>                  Spreadsheet author: gspreadr
#>   Date of googlesheets registration: 2016-06-25 02:41:18 GMT
#>     Date of last spreadsheet update: 2016-06-25 02:41:17 GMT
#>                          visibility: private
#>                         permissions: rw
#>                             version: new
#> 
#> Contains 1 worksheets:
#> (Title): (Nominal worksheet extent as rows x columns)
#> iris: 7 x 5
#> 
#> Key: 1nWCHxeRlncuHzqte_ITldyfrA3WABAG4YLxU2LKVmYk
#> Browser URL: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nWCHxeRlncuHzqte_ITldyfrA3WABAG4YLxU2LKVmYk/

Edit cells

There are two ways to edit cells within an existing worksheet of an existing spreadsheet:

gs_edit_cells() can write into an arbitrary cell rectangle
gs_add_row() can add a new row to the bottom of an existing cell rectangle

They are both slow and you’re better off using gs_upload() if you creating a new Sheet is compatible with your workflow.

Of the two, gs_add_row() is faster, but it can only be used when your data occupies a very neat rectangle in the upper left corner of the sheet. It relies on the list feed. gs_edit_cells() relies on batch editing on the cell feed.

We create a new Sheet, foo, and set up some well-named empty worksheets to practice with.

foo <- gs_new("foo") %>% 
  gs_ws_rename(from = "Sheet1", to = "edit_cells") %>% 
  gs_ws_new("add_row")
#> Sheet "foo" created in Google Drive.
#> Worksheet dimensions: 1000 x 26.
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Sheet1'.
#> Sheet successfully identified: "foo"
#> Worksheet "Sheet1" renamed to "edit_cells".
#> Worksheet "add_row" added to sheet "foo".
#> Worksheet dimensions: 1000 x 26.
foo
#>                   Spreadsheet title: foo
#>                  Spreadsheet author: gspreadr
#>   Date of googlesheets registration: 2016-06-25 02:41:25 GMT
#>     Date of last spreadsheet update: 2016-06-25 02:41:23 GMT
#>                          visibility: private
#>                         permissions: rw
#>                             version: new
#> 
#> Contains 2 worksheets:
#> (Title): (Nominal worksheet extent as rows x columns)
#> edit_cells: 1000 x 26
#> add_row: 1000 x 26
#> 
#> Key: 1HDPmMVgLal9B_-ddwp543bTFGRSvpYypp92KwM0lHBU
#> Browser URL: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HDPmMVgLal9B_-ddwp543bTFGRSvpYypp92KwM0lHBU/

## add first six rows of iris data (and var names) into a blank sheet
foo <- foo %>%
  gs_edit_cells(ws = "edit_cells", input = head(iris), trim = TRUE)
#> Range affected by the update: "A1:E7"
#> Worksheet "edit_cells" successfully updated with 35 new value(s).
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'edit_cells'.
#> Sheet successfully identified: "foo"
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'edit_cells'.
#> Worksheet "edit_cells" dimensions changed to 7 x 5.

## initialize sheet with column headers and one row of data
## the list feed is picky about this
foo <- foo %>% 
  gs_edit_cells(ws = "add_row", input = head(iris, 1), trim = TRUE)
#> Range affected by the update: "A1:E2"
#> Worksheet "add_row" successfully updated with 10 new value(s).
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'add_row'.
#> Sheet successfully identified: "foo"
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'add_row'.
#> Worksheet "add_row" dimensions changed to 2 x 5.
## add the next 5 rows of data ... careful not to go too fast
for (i in 2:6) {
  foo <- foo %>% gs_add_row(ws = "add_row", input = iris[i, ])
  Sys.sleep(0.3)
}
#> Row successfully appended.
#> Row successfully appended.
#> Row successfully appended.
#> Row successfully appended.
#> Row successfully appended.

## gs_add_row() will actually handle multiple rows at once
foo <- foo %>% 
  gs_add_row(ws = "add_row", input = tail(iris))
#> Row successfully appended.
#> Row successfully appended.
#> Row successfully appended.
#> Row successfully appended.
#> Row successfully appended.
#> Row successfully appended.

## let's inspect our work
foo %>% gs_read(ws = "edit_cells")
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'edit_cells'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
#> <tibble [6 x 5]>
#>   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
#>          <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>
#> 1          5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa
#> 2          4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa
#> 3          4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
#> 4          4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa
#> 5          5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2  setosa
#> 6          5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4  setosa
foo %>% gs_read(ws = "add_row")
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'add_row'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
#> <tibble [12 x 5]>
#>    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width   Species
#>           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>     <chr>
#> 1           5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2    setosa
#> 2           4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2    setosa
#> 3           4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2    setosa
#> 4           4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2    setosa
#> 5           5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2    setosa
#> 6           5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4    setosa
#> 7           6.7         3.3          5.7         2.5 virginica
#> 8           6.7         3.0          5.2         2.3 virginica
#> 9           6.3         2.5          5.0         1.9 virginica
#> 10          6.5         3.0          5.2         2.0 virginica
#> 11          6.2         3.4          5.4         2.3 virginica
#> 12          5.9         3.0          5.1         1.8 virginica

Go to your Google Sheets home screen, find the new sheet foo and admire it. You should see some iris data in the worksheets named edit_cells and add_row. You could also use gs_browse() to take you directly to those worksheets.

gs_browse(foo, ws = "edit_cells")
gs_browse(foo, ws = "add_row")

Do you need more control?

Read the function documentation for gs_edit_cells() for how to specify where the data goes, via an anchor cell, and in which direction, via the shape of the input or the byrow = argument.

Protip: If your edit populates the sheet with everything it should have, set trim = TRUE and we will resize the sheet to match the data. Then the nominal worksheet extent is much more informative (vs. the default of 1000 rows and 26 columns) and future consumption via the cell feed will potentially be faster.

Delete Sheets

Use gs_delete() and friends to delete entire Sheets. Let’s clean up by deleting the foo spreadsheet.

gs_delete(foo)
#> Success. "foo" moved to trash in Google Drive.

If you’d rather specify sheets for deletion by title, look at gs_grepdel() and gs_vecdel(). These functions also allow the deletion of multiple sheets at once.

Make new Sheets from local delimited files or Excel workbooks

Use gs_upload() to create a new Sheet de novo from a suitable local file. First, we’ll write then upload a comma-delimited excerpt from the iris data.

iris %>%
  head(5) %>%
  write.csv("iris.csv", row.names = FALSE)
iris_ss <- gs_upload("iris.csv")
#> File uploaded to Google Drive:
#> iris.csv
#> As the Google Sheet named:
#> iris
iris_ss
#>                   Spreadsheet title: iris
#>                  Spreadsheet author: gspreadr
#>   Date of googlesheets registration: 2016-06-25 02:42:06 GMT
#>     Date of last spreadsheet update: 2016-06-25 02:42:04 GMT
#>                          visibility: private
#>                         permissions: rw
#>                             version: new
#> 
#> Contains 1 worksheets:
#> (Title): (Nominal worksheet extent as rows x columns)
#> iris: 1000 x 26
#> 
#> Key: 1SpgaDXbxOTbhMcUNDPuTEIDJBMWRRqsxB53pXwoGYks
#> Browser URL: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SpgaDXbxOTbhMcUNDPuTEIDJBMWRRqsxB53pXwoGYks/
iris_ss %>% gs_read()
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'iris'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
#> <tibble [5 x 5]>
#>   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
#>          <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>
#> 1          5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa
#> 2          4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa
#> 3          4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
#> 4          4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa
#> 5          5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2  setosa
file.remove("iris.csv")
#> [1] TRUE

Now we’ll upload a multi-sheet Excel workbook. Slowly.

gap_xlsx <- gs_upload(system.file("mini-gap", "mini-gap.xlsx",
                                  package = "googlesheets"))
#> File uploaded to Google Drive:
#> /private/var/folders/vt/4sdxy0rd1b3b65nqssx4sx_h0000gn/T/RtmpAgqscG/Rinstb60d43b1b769/googlesheets/mini-gap/mini-gap.xlsx
#> As the Google Sheet named:
#> mini-gap
gap_xlsx
#>                   Spreadsheet title: mini-gap
#>                  Spreadsheet author: gspreadr
#>   Date of googlesheets registration: 2016-06-25 02:42:10 GMT
#>     Date of last spreadsheet update: 2016-06-25 02:42:08 GMT
#>                          visibility: private
#>                         permissions: rw
#>                             version: new
#> 
#> Contains 5 worksheets:
#> (Title): (Nominal worksheet extent as rows x columns)
#> Africa: 1000 x 26
#> Americas: 1000 x 26
#> Asia: 1000 x 26
#> Europe: 1000 x 26
#> Oceania: 1000 x 26
#> 
#> Key: 12A1tgps1wH3mEg2-wVGFEy3bI_oZ1gjsIS1xy2CdOKY
#> Browser URL: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12A1tgps1wH3mEg2-wVGFEy3bI_oZ1gjsIS1xy2CdOKY/
gap_xlsx %>% gs_read(ws = "Asia")
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Asia'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
#> <tibble [5 x 6]>
#>       country continent  year lifeExp       pop gdpPercap
#>         <chr>     <chr> <int>   <dbl>     <int>     <dbl>
#> 1 Afghanistan      Asia  1952  28.801   8425333  779.4453
#> 2     Bahrain      Asia  1952  50.939    120447 9867.0848
#> 3  Bangladesh      Asia  1952  37.484  46886859  684.2442
#> 4    Cambodia      Asia  1952  39.417   4693836  368.4693
#> 5       China      Asia  1952  44.000 556263527  400.4486

And we clean up after ourselves on Google Drive.

gs_vecdel(c("iris", "mini-gap"))
#> Sheet successfully identified: "mini-gap"
#> Success. "mini-gap" moved to trash in Google Drive.
#> Sheet successfully identified: "iris"
#> Success. "iris" moved to trash in Google Drive.
#> [1] TRUE TRUE
## achieves same as:
## gs_delete(iris_ss)
## gs_delete(gap_xlsx)

Download Sheets as csv, pdf, or xlsx file

Use gs_download() to download a Google Sheet as a csv, pdf, or xlsx file. Downloading the spreadsheet as a csv file will export the first worksheet (default) unless another worksheet is specified.

gs_title("Gapminder") %>%
  gs_download(ws = "Africa", to = "gapminder-africa.csv")
#> Sheet successfully identified: "Gapminder"
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Africa'.
#> Sheet successfully downloaded:
#> /private/var/folders/vt/4sdxy0rd1b3b65nqssx4sx_h0000gn/T/RtmpAgqscG/Rbuildb60d64c6fb9f/googlesheets/vignettes/gapminder-africa.csv
## is it there? yes!
read.csv("gapminder-africa.csv") %>% head()
#>   country continent year lifeExp      pop gdpPercap
#> 1 Algeria    Africa 1952  43.077  9279525  2449.008
#> 2 Algeria    Africa 1957  45.685 10270856  3013.976
#> 3 Algeria    Africa 1962  48.303 11000948  2550.817
#> 4 Algeria    Africa 1967  51.407 12760499  3246.992
#> 5 Algeria    Africa 1972  54.518 14760787  4182.664
#> 6 Algeria    Africa 1977  58.014 17152804  4910.417

Download the entire spreadsheet as an Excel workbook.

gs_title("Gapminder") %>% 
  gs_download(to = "gapminder.xlsx")
#> Sheet successfully identified: "Gapminder"
#> Sheet successfully downloaded:
#> /private/var/folders/vt/4sdxy0rd1b3b65nqssx4sx_h0000gn/T/RtmpAgqscG/Rbuildb60d64c6fb9f/googlesheets/vignettes/gapminder.xlsx

Go check it out in Excel, if you wish!

And now we clean up the downloaded files.

file.remove(c("gapminder.xlsx", "gapminder-africa.csv"))
#> [1] TRUE TRUE

Read data, but with more control

Specify the consumption method

There are three ways to consume data from a worksheet within a Google spreadsheet. The order goes from fastest-but-more-limited to slowest-but-most-flexible:

gs_read_csv(): Don’t let the name scare you! Nothing is written to file during this process. The name just reflects that, under the hood, we request the data via the “exportcsv” link. For cases where gs_read_csv() and gs_read_listfeed() both work, we see that gs_read_csv() is often 5 times faster. Use this when your data occupies a nice rectangle in the sheet and you’re willing to consume all of it. You will get a tbl_df back, which is basically just a data.frame. In fact, you might want to use gs_read_csv() in other, less tidy scenarios and do further munging in R.
gs_read_listfeed(): Gets data via the “list feed”, which consumes data row-by-row. Like gs_read_csv(), this is appropriate when your data occupies a nice rectangle. Why do we even have this function? The list feed supports some query parameters for sorting and filtering the data. And might also be necessary for reading an “old” Sheet.
gs_read_cellfeed(): Get data via the “cell feed”, which consumes data cell-by-cell. This is appropriate when you want to consume arbitrary cells, rows, columns, and regions of the sheet or when you want to get formulas or cell contents without numeric formatting applied, e.g. rounding. It is invoked by gs_read() whenever the range = argument is non-NULL or literal = FALSE. It works great for modest amounts of data but can be rather slow otherwise. gs_read_cellfeed() returns a tbl_df with one row per cell. You can target specific cells via the range argument. See below for demos of gs_reshape_cellfeed() and gs_simplify_cellfeed() which help with post-processing.

# Get the data for worksheet "Oceania": the super-fast csv way
oceania_csv <- gap %>% gs_read_csv(ws = "Oceania")
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Oceania'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
str(oceania_csv)
#> Classes 'tbl_df', 'tbl' and 'data.frame':    24 obs. of  6 variables:
#>  $ country  : chr  "Australia" "Australia" "Australia" "Australia" ...
#>  $ continent: chr  "Oceania" "Oceania" "Oceania" "Oceania" ...
#>  $ year     : int  1952 1957 1962 1967 1972 1977 1982 1987 1992 1997 ...
#>  $ lifeExp  : num  69.1 70.3 70.9 71.1 71.9 ...
#>  $ pop      : int  8691212 9712569 10794968 11872264 13177000 14074100 15184200 16257249 17481977 18565243 ...
#>  $ gdpPercap: num  10040 10950 12217 14526 16789 ...
oceania_csv
#> <tibble [24 x 6]>
#>      country continent  year lifeExp      pop gdpPercap
#>        <chr>     <chr> <int>   <dbl>    <int>     <dbl>
#> 1  Australia   Oceania  1952   69.12  8691212  10039.60
#> 2  Australia   Oceania  1957   70.33  9712569  10949.65
#> 3  Australia   Oceania  1962   70.93 10794968  12217.23
#> 4  Australia   Oceania  1967   71.10 11872264  14526.12
#> 5  Australia   Oceania  1972   71.93 13177000  16788.63
#> 6  Australia   Oceania  1977   73.49 14074100  18334.20
#> 7  Australia   Oceania  1982   74.74 15184200  19477.01
#> 8  Australia   Oceania  1987   76.32 16257249  21888.89
#> 9  Australia   Oceania  1992   77.56 17481977  23424.77
#> 10 Australia   Oceania  1997   78.83 18565243  26997.94
#> ... with 14 more rows

# Get the data for worksheet "Oceania": the less-fast tabular way ("list feed")
oceania_list_feed <- gap %>% gs_read_listfeed(ws = "Oceania") 
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Oceania'.
str(oceania_list_feed)
#> Classes 'tbl_df', 'tbl' and 'data.frame':    24 obs. of  6 variables:
#>  $ country  : chr  "Australia" "Australia" "Australia" "Australia" ...
#>  $ continent: chr  "Oceania" "Oceania" "Oceania" "Oceania" ...
#>  $ year     : int  1952 1957 1962 1967 1972 1977 1982 1987 1992 1997 ...
#>  $ lifeExp  : num  69.1 70.3 70.9 71.1 71.9 ...
#>  $ pop      : int  8691212 9712569 10794968 11872264 13177000 14074100 15184200 16257249 17481977 18565243 ...
#>  $ gdpPercap: num  10040 10950 12217 14526 16789 ...
oceania_list_feed
#> <tibble [24 x 6]>
#>      country continent  year lifeExp      pop gdpPercap
#>        <chr>     <chr> <int>   <dbl>    <int>     <dbl>
#> 1  Australia   Oceania  1952   69.12  8691212  10039.60
#> 2  Australia   Oceania  1957   70.33  9712569  10949.65
#> 3  Australia   Oceania  1962   70.93 10794968  12217.23
#> 4  Australia   Oceania  1967   71.10 11872264  14526.12
#> 5  Australia   Oceania  1972   71.93 13177000  16788.63
#> 6  Australia   Oceania  1977   73.49 14074100  18334.20
#> 7  Australia   Oceania  1982   74.74 15184200  19477.01
#> 8  Australia   Oceania  1987   76.32 16257249  21888.89
#> 9  Australia   Oceania  1992   77.56 17481977  23424.77
#> 10 Australia   Oceania  1997   78.83 18565243  26997.94
#> ... with 14 more rows

# Get the data for worksheet "Oceania": the slow cell-by-cell way ("cell feed")
oceania_cell_feed <- gap %>% gs_read_cellfeed(ws = "Oceania") 
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Oceania'.
str(oceania_cell_feed)
#> Classes 'tbl_df', 'tbl' and 'data.frame':    150 obs. of  7 variables:
#>  $ cell         : chr  "A1" "B1" "C1" "D1" ...
#>  $ cell_alt     : chr  "R1C1" "R1C2" "R1C3" "R1C4" ...
#>  $ row          : int  1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 ...
#>  $ col          : int  1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 ...
#>  $ value        : chr  "country" "continent" "year" "lifeExp" ...
#>  $ input_value  : chr  "country" "continent" "year" "lifeExp" ...
#>  $ numeric_value: chr  NA NA NA NA ...
#>  - attr(*, "ws_title")= chr "Oceania"
oceania_cell_feed
#> <tibble [150 x 7]>
#>     cell cell_alt   row   col     value input_value numeric_value
#>    <chr>    <chr> <int> <int>     <chr>       <chr>         <chr>
#> 1     A1     R1C1     1     1   country     country          <NA>
#> 2     B1     R1C2     1     2 continent   continent          <NA>
#> 3     C1     R1C3     1     3      year        year          <NA>
#> 4     D1     R1C4     1     4   lifeExp     lifeExp          <NA>
#> 5     E1     R1C5     1     5       pop         pop          <NA>
#> 6     F1     R1C6     1     6 gdpPercap   gdpPercap          <NA>
#> 7     A2     R2C1     2     1 Australia   Australia          <NA>
#> 8     B2     R2C2     2     2   Oceania     Oceania          <NA>
#> 9     C2     R2C3     2     3      1952        1952        1952.0
#> 10    D2     R2C4     2     4     69.12       69.12         69.12
#> ... with 140 more rows

Quick speed comparison

Let’s consume all the data for Africa by all 3 methods and see how long it takes.

	gs_read_csv	gs_read_listfeed	gs_read_cellfeed
user.self	0.030 (1.00)	0.250 (7.41)	1.530 (44.85)
sys.self	0.000 (1.00)	0.020 (6.33)	0.050 (17.33)
elapsed	0.510 (1.00)	1.280 (2.52)	3.140 ( 6.19)

Post-processing data from the cell feed

If you consume data from the cell feed with gs_read_cellfeed(), you get a data.frame back with one row per cell. The package offers two functions to post-process this into something more useful:

gs_reshape_cellfeed(), makes a 2D thing, i.e. a data frame
gs_simplify_cellfeed() makes a 1D thing, i.e. a vector

Reshaping into a 2D data frame is covered well elsewhere, so here we mostly demonstrate the use of gs_simplify_cellfeed().

## reshape into 2D data frame
gap_3rows <- gap %>% gs_read_cellfeed("Europe", range = cell_rows(1:3))
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Europe'.
gap_3rows %>% head()
#> <tibble [6 x 7]>
#>    cell cell_alt   row   col     value input_value numeric_value
#>   <chr>    <chr> <int> <int>     <chr>       <chr>         <chr>
#> 1    A1     R1C1     1     1   country     country          <NA>
#> 2    B1     R1C2     1     2 continent   continent          <NA>
#> 3    C1     R1C3     1     3      year        year          <NA>
#> 4    D1     R1C4     1     4   lifeExp     lifeExp          <NA>
#> 5    E1     R1C5     1     5       pop         pop          <NA>
#> 6    F1     R1C6     1     6 gdpPercap   gdpPercap          <NA>
gap_3rows %>% gs_reshape_cellfeed()
#> <tibble [2 x 6]>
#>   country continent  year lifeExp     pop gdpPercap
#>     <chr>     <chr> <int>   <dbl>   <int>     <dbl>
#> 1 Albania    Europe  1952   55.23 1282697  1601.056
#> 2 Albania    Europe  1957   59.28 1476505  1942.284

# Example: first row only
gap_1row <- gap %>% gs_read_cellfeed("Europe", range = cell_rows(1))
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Europe'.
gap_1row
#> <tibble [6 x 7]>
#>    cell cell_alt   row   col     value input_value numeric_value
#>   <chr>    <chr> <int> <int>     <chr>       <chr>         <chr>
#> 1    A1     R1C1     1     1   country     country          <NA>
#> 2    B1     R1C2     1     2 continent   continent          <NA>
#> 3    C1     R1C3     1     3      year        year          <NA>
#> 4    D1     R1C4     1     4   lifeExp     lifeExp          <NA>
#> 5    E1     R1C5     1     5       pop         pop          <NA>
#> 6    F1     R1C6     1     6 gdpPercap   gdpPercap          <NA>

# convert to a named (character) vector
gap_1row %>% gs_simplify_cellfeed()
#>          A1          B1          C1          D1          E1          F1 
#>   "country" "continent"      "year"   "lifeExp"       "pop" "gdpPercap"

# Example: single column
gap_1col <- gap %>% gs_read_cellfeed("Europe", range = cell_cols(3))
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'Europe'.
gap_1col
#> <tibble [361 x 7]>
#>     cell cell_alt   row   col value input_value numeric_value
#>    <chr>    <chr> <int> <int> <chr>       <chr>         <chr>
#> 1     C1     R1C3     1     3  year        year          <NA>
#> 2     C2     R2C3     2     3  1952        1952        1952.0
#> 3     C3     R3C3     3     3  1957        1957        1957.0
#> 4     C4     R4C3     4     3  1962        1962        1962.0
#> 5     C5     R5C3     5     3  1967        1967        1967.0
#> 6     C6     R6C3     6     3  1972        1972        1972.0
#> 7     C7     R7C3     7     3  1977        1977        1977.0
#> 8     C8     R8C3     8     3  1982        1982        1982.0
#> 9     C9     R9C3     9     3  1987        1987        1987.0
#> 10   C10    R10C3    10     3  1992        1992        1992.0
#> ... with 351 more rows

# drop the `year` variable name, convert to integer, return un-named vector
yr <- gap_1col %>% gs_simplify_cellfeed(notation = "none")
str(yr)
#>  int [1:360] 1952 1957 1962 1967 1972 1977 1982 1987 1992 1997 ...

Controlling data ingest, theory

googlesheets provides control of data ingest in the style of readr. Some arguments are passed straight through to readr::read_csv() or readr::type_convert() and others are used internally by googlesheets, hopefully in the same way!

Which cells?

range gives finest control and is enacted first. Available on gs_read(), which calls gs_read_cellfeed(), which can also be called directly.
skip skips rows, from the top only. Available in all read functions.
comment can be used to skip rows inside the data rectangle, if the comment string occurs at the start of the first cell. Available in all read functions.
n_max can be used to limit the number of rows. Available in all read functions.
The list feed supports structured queries to filter rows. See its help file.

Where do variable names come from?

col_names works just as it does in readr, for all read functions.
- TRUE, the default, will treat first row as a header row of variable names.
- FALSE will cause googlesheets to create variable names. Combine that with skip = 1 if the sheet contains variable names, but you just don’t like them.
- A character vector of names also works. Again, possibly combine with skip = 1.
Two departures from readr:
- googlesheets will never return a data frame with NA as a variable name. Instead, it will create a dummy variable name, like X5.
- All read/reshape functions accept check.names, in the spirit of utils::read.table(), which defaults to FALSE. If TRUE, variable names will be run through make.names(..., unique = TRUE).

How to do type conversion of variables?

The readr default behavior might be just fine. Try it!
Read the readr vignette on column types to better understand the automatic variable conversion behavior and how to use the col_types argument to override it.
col_types, locale, trim_ws, and na are all available for finer control.
One departure from readr:
- If a variable consists entirely of NAs, they will be logical NAs, not NA_character_.

How to get raw formulas or numbers without numeric formatting applied?

gs_read(..., literal = FALSE) will get unformatted numbers via the cell feed. Useful if numeric formatting is causing a number to come in as character or if rounding is a problem.
If you want full access to formulas and alternative definitions of cell contents, use gs_read_cellfeed() directly.
See the “Formulas and Formatting” vignette for more.

Controlling data ingest, practice

Let’s make a practice sheet to explore ways to control data ingest. On different worksheets, we put the same data frame into slightly more challenging positions.

df <- data_frame(thing1 = paste0("A", 2:5),
                 thing2 = paste0("B", 2:5),
                 thing3 = paste0("C", 2:5))
df$thing1[2] <- paste0("#", df$thing1[2])
df$thing2[1] <- "*"
df
#> <tibble [4 x 3]>
#>   thing1 thing2 thing3
#>    <chr>  <chr>  <chr>
#> 1     A2      *     C2
#> 2    #A3     B3     C3
#> 3     A4     B4     C4
#> 4     A5     B5     C5

ss <- gs_new("data-ingest-practice", ws_title = "simple",
             input = df, trim = TRUE) %>% 
  gs_ws_new("one-blank-row", input = df, trim = TRUE, anchor = "A2") %>% 
  gs_ws_new("two-blank-rows", input = df, trim = TRUE, anchor = "A3")
#> Sheet "data-ingest-practice" created in Google Drive.
#> Worksheet "Sheet1" renamed to "simple".
#> Range affected by the update: "A1:C5"
#> Worksheet "simple" successfully updated with 15 new value(s).
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'simple'.
#> Sheet successfully identified: "data-ingest-practice"
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'simple'.
#> Worksheet "simple" dimensions changed to 5 x 3.
#> Worksheet dimensions: 5 x 3.
#> Worksheet "one-blank-row" added to sheet "data-ingest-practice".
#> Range affected by the update: "A2:C6"
#> Worksheet "one-blank-row" successfully updated with 15 new value(s).
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'one-blank-row'.
#> Sheet successfully identified: "data-ingest-practice"
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'one-blank-row'.
#> Worksheet "one-blank-row" dimensions changed to 6 x 3.
#> Worksheet dimensions: 6 x 3.
#> Worksheet "two-blank-rows" added to sheet "data-ingest-practice".
#> Range affected by the update: "A3:C7"
#> Worksheet "two-blank-rows" successfully updated with 15 new value(s).
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'two-blank-rows'.
#> Sheet successfully identified: "data-ingest-practice"
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'two-blank-rows'.
#> Worksheet "two-blank-rows" dimensions changed to 7 x 3.
#> Worksheet dimensions: 7 x 3.

Go visit it in the browser via gs_browse(ss). The first worksheet will look something like this:

simple-ingest

Override the default variable names, but use skip = 1 to keep them from ending up in the data frame. Try it with different read methods.

## will use gs_read_csv
ss %>% gs_read(col_names = FALSE, skip = 1)
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'simple'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
#> <tibble [4 x 3]>
#>      X1    X2    X3
#>   <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1    A2     *    C2
#> 2   #A3    B3    C3
#> 3    A4    B4    C4
#> 4    A5    B5    C5
ss %>% gs_read(col_names = letters[1:3], skip = 1)
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'simple'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
#> <tibble [4 x 3]>
#>       a     b     c
#>   <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1    A2     *    C2
#> 2   #A3    B3    C3
#> 3    A4    B4    C4
#> 4    A5    B5    C5

## explicitly use gs_read_listfeed
ss %>% gs_read_listfeed(col_names = FALSE, skip = 1)
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'simple'.
#> <tibble [4 x 3]>
#>      X1    X2    X3
#>   <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1    A2     *    C2
#> 2   #A3    B3    C3
#> 3    A4    B4    C4
#> 4    A5    B5    C5

## use range to force use of gs_read_cellfeed
ss %>% gs_read_listfeed(col_names = FALSE, skip = 1, range = cell_cols("A:Z"))
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'simple'.
#> <tibble [4 x 3]>
#>      X1    X2    X3
#>   <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1    A2     *    C2
#> 2   #A3    B3    C3
#> 3    A4    B4    C4
#> 4    A5    B5    C5

Read from the worksheet with a blank row at the top. Start to play with some other ingest arguments.

top-filler

## blank row causes variable names to show up in the data frame :(
ss %>% gs_read(ws = "one-blank-row")
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'one-blank-row'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
#> <tibble [5 x 3]>
#>       X1     X2     X3
#>    <chr>  <chr>  <chr>
#> 1 thing1 thing2 thing3
#> 2     A2      *     C2
#> 3    #A3     B3     C3
#> 4     A4     B4     C4
#> 5     A5     B5     C5

## skip = 1 fixes it :)
ss %>% gs_read(ws = "one-blank-row", skip = 1)
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'one-blank-row'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
#> <tibble [4 x 3]>
#>   thing1 thing2 thing3
#>    <chr>  <chr>  <chr>
#> 1     A2      *     C2
#> 2    #A3     B3     C3
#> 3     A4     B4     C4
#> 4     A5     B5     C5

## more arguments, more better
ss %>% gs_read(ws = "one-blank-row", skip = 2,
               col_names = paste0("yo ?!*", 1:3), check.names = TRUE,
               na = "*", comment = "#", n_max = 2)
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'one-blank-row'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
#> <tibble [2 x 3]>
#>   yo....1 yo....2 yo....3
#>     <chr>   <chr>   <chr>
#> 1      A2    <NA>      C2
#> 2      A4      B4      C4

## also works on list feed
ss %>% gs_read_listfeed(ws = "one-blank-row", skip = 2,
                        col_names = paste0("yo ?!*", 1:3), check.names = TRUE,
                        na = "*", comment = "#", n_max = 2)
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'one-blank-row'.
#> <tibble [2 x 3]>
#>   yo....1 yo....2 yo....3
#>     <chr>   <chr>   <chr>
#> 1      A2    <NA>      C2
#> 2      A4      B4      C4

## also works on the cell feed
ss %>% gs_read_listfeed(ws = "one-blank-row", range = cell_cols("A:Z"), skip = 2,
                        col_names = paste0("yo ?!*", 1:3), check.names = TRUE,
                        na = "*", comment = "#", n_max = 2)
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'one-blank-row'.
#> <tibble [2 x 3]>
#>   yo....1 yo....2 yo....3
#>     <chr>   <chr>   <chr>
#> 1      A2    <NA>      C2
#> 2      A4      B4      C4

Finally, we read from the worksheet with TWO blank rows at the top, which is more than the list feed can handle.

## use skip to get correct result via gs_read() --> gs_read_csv()
ss %>% gs_read(ws = "two-blank-rows", skip = 2)
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'two-blank-rows'.
#> No encoding supplied: defaulting to UTF-8.
#> <tibble [4 x 3]>
#>   thing1 thing2 thing3
#>    <chr>  <chr>  <chr>
#> 1     A2      *     C2
#> 2    #A3     B3     C3
#> 3     A4     B4     C4
#> 4     A5     B5     C5

## or use range in gs_read() --> gs_read_cellfeed() + gs_reshape_cellfeed()
ss %>% gs_read(ws = "two-blank-rows", range = cell_limits(c(3, NA), c(NA, NA)))
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'two-blank-rows'.
#> <tibble [4 x 3]>
#>   thing1 thing2 thing3
#>    <chr>  <chr>  <chr>
#> 1     A2      *     C2
#> 2    #A3     B3     C3
#> 3     A4     B4     C4
#> 4     A5     B5     C5
ss %>% gs_read(ws = "two-blank-rows", range = cell_cols("A:C"))
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'two-blank-rows'.
#> <tibble [4 x 3]>
#>   thing1 thing2 thing3
#>    <chr>  <chr>  <chr>
#> 1     A2      *     C2
#> 2    #A3     B3     C3
#> 3     A4     B4     C4
#> 4     A5     B5     C5

## list feed can't cope because the 1st data row is empty
ss %>% gs_read_listfeed(ws = "two-blank-rows")
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'two-blank-rows'.
#> Worksheet 'two-blank-rows' is empty.
#> <tibble [0 x 0]>
ss %>% gs_read_listfeed(ws = "two-blank-rows", skip = 2)
#> Accessing worksheet titled 'two-blank-rows'.
#> Worksheet 'two-blank-rows' is empty.
#> <tibble [0 x 0]>

Let’s clean up after ourselves.

gs_delete(ss)
#> Success. "data-ingest-practice" moved to trash in Google Drive.