Google Sheets Functions & Xpath

Google Spreadsheets Functions


Google Sheets



Google Sheets  (spreadsheets) allow you to use many functions available in other spreadsheet software. Excel and Open office for example have many calculation functions, such as =SUM() =AVERAGE() . 

Google functions are a set of Google specific functions. Some Google functions using Xpath to call specific information from xHTML and XML webpages.

In Google Docs (spreadsheet) "Insert" > "Function" > "More" > "Google" > Select the Google Function/Copy the reference function code (eg. =GoogleClock() )

Google Sheets Functions:


ALL Google Spreadsheets Functions


=GoogleClock()
- gets the time and date


=GoogleLookup("entity", "attribute")
- Lookup a reference


=GoogleFinance("symbol", "attribute")
- Stock/Share Symbol Lookup


=DetectLanguage("text")
- detect a language


=GoogleTranslate("text", "fromLangauge", "toLangauge")
- translate a language (Using ISO -639 code eg. EN for English More Codes)


=ImportHtml("url", "query", "index")
- Import Html


=ImportXML("url", "query")
- Import XML


=ImportData("url")
-Import Source code


=ImportFeed("url", "query", "headers", "numItems")
-Import Atom/RSS formatted feed

More functions for Google docs spreadsheets:






Xpath:


Xpath Examples [finding the general path to a webpages information eg. ALL image URLs on a webpage]

Xpath is way to call specific information from a XML or xHTML webpage. Xpath is similar to technologies such as XMLRPC and AMF (and older cell based DDE ),  but simpler and more accessible for non programmers. 

Xpath can call information directly into a spreadsheet cell (maybe directly in a markup language in future) from a online source. Once there are enough specific tags in the online document, any publicly live data can be obtained.

Xpath Standards


xPath Standards: [Google Docs xPath may differ slightly]

W3schools Xpath Introduction
Public Data - W3schools Xpath Syntax
Public Data - W3C - XML Path Language (XPath) Version 1.0

Non Public Data - Google Secure Data Connector


Google Functions and Xpath Examples:


Live Information in a Spreadsheet.

Google Functions & Xpath Examples