How to merge cells with Google Sheets API? - google-sheets-api

Question

I am using the Python client for the Google Sheets API to build a spreadsheet. I am able to create a new sheet and update values in it, but I have been unable to merge cells for the header row that I want.
top_header_format = [
{'mergeCells': {
'mergeType': 'MERGE_COLUMNS',
'range': {
'endColumnIndex': 3,
'endRowIndex': 1,
'sheetId': '112501875',
'startColumnIndex': 0,
'startRowIndex': 0
}
}},
{'mergeCells': {
'mergeType': 'MERGE_COLUMNS',
'range': {
'endColumnIndex': 5,
'endRowIndex': 1,
'sheetId': '112501875',
'startColumnIndex': 3,
'startRowIndex': 0
}
}}
]
service.spreadsheets().batchUpdate(
spreadsheetId=spreadsheet_id,
body={'requests': top_header_format}
).execute()
This is the code I am running. There are no errors. The response's replies are empty and the spreadsheet doesn't have merged cells. The documentation is here.

Answer 1

Start indexes are inclusive and end indexes are exclusive, so by asking to merge row [0,1) you're saying "i want to merge row 0 into row 0", which is a no-op. You probably want [0,2), e.g:
top_header_format = [
{'mergeCells': {
'mergeType': 'MERGE_COLUMNS',
'range': {
'endColumnIndex': 4,
'endRowIndex': 2,
'sheetId': '112501875',
'startColumnIndex': 0,
'startRowIndex': 0
}
}},
{'mergeCells': {
'mergeType': 'MERGE_COLUMNS',
'range': {
'endColumnIndex': 6,
'endRowIndex': 2,
'sheetId': '112501875',
'startColumnIndex': 3,
'startRowIndex': 0
}
}}
]

Answer 2

If someone looking for doing merging with PHP, you can use this code below:
For merging cells first you will have to download the PHP library from composer as in their documentation ( https://developers.google.com/sheets/api/quickstart/php )
once installed follow their guide to set up your client to get authenticated.
//$client will be your Google_Client authentication, for more info check the documentation link above.
Use below code for doing merging of rows and columns
$service = new Google_Service_Sheets($client);
$spreadsheetId = '1jfUz2VMUUEt2s4BP2Ye'; //this is test spreadsheet it, use your spreadsheet id here
$rangeinst = new Google_Service_Sheets_GridRange();
$rangeinst->setSheetId(0); //your sheet id
$rangeinst->setStartRowIndex(1); // row index from where to start
$rangeinst->setEndRowIndex(11); //ending row upto which you want merging
$rangeinst->setStartColumnIndex(0); //start of column index, first column has 0 index like row
$rangeinst->setEndColumnIndex(4); //end of column upto which you want merging
$merge = new Google_Service_Sheets_MergeCellsRequest();
$merge->setMergeType('MERGE_COLUMNS'); //merge type request
$merge->setRange($rangeinst);
$requestBody = new Google_Service_Sheets_Request();
$requestBody->setMergeCells($merge);
$requestBatchBody = new Google_Service_Sheets_BatchUpdateSpreadsheetRequest();
$requestBatchBody->setRequests($requestBody);
$response = $service->spreadsheets->batchUpdate($spreadsheetId, $requestBatchBody);
echo "<pre>";
print_r($response);