Here's an approach that will be much faster than using the SpreadsheetApp methods. Instead of the copy / delete / insert / paste operations, you can take a copy of the whole sheet at once, modify in memory, then write the modified data back out.
We start with a moveColumn() function that has the same signature as in ssurendr's answer. However, its job is just to read the spreadsheet data, pass it to be manipulated by a generic javascript function, then write the result back out to the sheet.
/**
* Move column in current spreadsheet
*
* @param {int} iniCol Source column index (1-based)
* @param {int} finCol Destination column index (1-based)
*/
function moveColumn(iniCol, finCol) {
var dataRange = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet().getDataRange();
var data = arrayMoveColumn( dataRange.getValues(), iniCol - 1, finCol - 1 );
dataRange.setValues(data);
}
The next function, arrayMoveColumn(), is not specific to Google spreadsheets. It will move a column in any two-dimensional array. Javascript arrays are indexed starting at 0, while Spreadsheet methods use 1-based indexes. We've added some basic error checking, although it's not fool-proof.
The workhorse in this function is the Array.splice() method, which is used to remove and insert elements in the array.
/**
* Move content of a "column" in a 2-d Array.
*
* @param {array} data Two-dimensional matrix (array with no null values)
* Array content is changed by this function.
* @param {int} from Source column index (0-based)
* @param {int} to Destination column index (0-based)
*
* @return {array} Resulting array (for chaining)
*/
function arrayMoveColumn( data, from, to ) {
// Parameter error checking
if ( !( data instanceof Array && data[0] instanceof Array ) ) throw new TypeError( 'need 2d array' );
if ( from >= data[0].length || to >= data[0].length ) throw new Error( 'index out of bounds' );
for (var row=0; row<data.length; row++) {
var temp = data[row].splice(from, 1); // take 'from'
data[row].splice(to, 0, temp[0]); // put 'to'
}
return data;
}
