Is there an easier way to implement the missing "getNamedRange(....)" method?

Question

In Google Apps Script there is a method getNamedRanges() on Spreadsheets and Sheets which returns a LIST of Named Ranges. But there is no getNamedRange("Name") which returns a SINGLE named range.

This seems odd to me.

To get round this, I'm using this convoluted process:

function testing()
{
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var nameOfNamedRange = "NameOfMyNamedRange";

  var namedRanges = ss.getNamedRanges();

  /* ###### THIS IS WHAT I HAVE TO DO ######### */
  for (i = 0; i<namedRanges.length; ++i)
  { var nRange = namedRanges[i];
    if ( nRange.getName() == nameOfNamedRange )
      {
        /* Process nRange
        doSomething(nRange);
        */
        Logger.log(nRange.getName());
      }
  }

/* ############ THIS IS WHAT I'D LIKE TO DO (or something similar) ##########
    var nRange = ss.getNamedRange("NameOfMyNamedRange") // ...Range   not ...Ranges

*/
}

Is there an easier way to do this? I can't help thinking I'm missing something obvious.

Answer 1

For example, how about using the method of getRangeByName()?

Modified script:

var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var nameOfNamedRange = "NameOfMyNamedRange";
var nRange = ss.getRangeByName(nameOfNamedRange); // Added

Reference:

• getRangeByName()

Edit:

When you want to retrieve a single named range, how about the following sample script, because there are no methods for directly retrieve the single one? The name of named range is only one in the Spreadsheet. This can be used. Please think of this as just one of several answers.

var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var nameOfNamedRange = "NameOfMyNamedRange";
var nRange = ss.getNamedRanges().filter(function(e) {return e.getName() === nameOfNamedRange})[0]; // Added

Answer 2

Unfortunately there is no function to return a single NamedRange instance. But you can clean up your current work-around and wrap it up into a utility function as follows:

(function(scope){
    const Utils = scope.Utils || (scope.Utils = {});

    /**
     * Filter function
     */
    function filterByName(namedRange) {
        return this.name === namedRange.getName();
    }

    /**
     * Gets named range by name.
     *
     * @param {Spreadsheet|Sheet} context - An instance of Spreadsheet or Sheet.
     * @param {String}               name - The name of a NamedRange.
     *
     * @return {NamedRange} A NamedRange or null if not found.
     */
    function getNamedRangeByName(context, name) {
        if (!context || !context.getNamedRanges) {
            throw new Error("Invalid context object; must implement getNamedRanges()");
        }

        var filtered = context.getNamedRanges().filter(filterByName.bind({name:name}));

        return filtered.length ? filtered[0] : null;
    }

    Utils.getNamedRangeByName = getNamedRangeByName;
})(this);

Just add the above script to your project and then call it as follows:

var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
var nameOfNamedRange = "[NAME_OF_NAMED_RANGE]";

var namedRange = Utils.getNamedRangeByName(ss, nameOfNamedRange);

Answer 3

Actually there is a way to get a named range. Let say I have a named range A1:B3 called "Test".

var values = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName("Sheet1").getRange("Test").getValues();

Will return the values in A1:B3. Or more simply.

  var values = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getRange("Test").getValues();

If the objective is to change the name try this.

var spread = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var range = spread.getRange("Test");
spread.setNamedRange("Other",range);