How to generate blank Google Sheets via Drive API?

Other Questions Google drive
1

I’m trying to figure out how to make empty Google Sheets using just the metadata through the Drive API. The old docs pointed to the DocumentsList API, but that’s not an option anymore. I’ve looked through the current Drive API docs, but I’m stumped on how to create a blank Sheet. Does anyone know a way to do this?

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

from googleapiclient.discovery import build

service = build('drive', 'v3', credentials=creds)

file_metadata = {
    'name': 'Blank Sheet',
    'mimeType': 'application/vnd.google-apps.spreadsheet'
}

file = service.files().create(body=file_metadata).execute()

This creates a new Sheet, but it’s not completely empty. It still has the default sheet with some cells. Is there a way to create a truly blank spreadsheet with no default content? Any help would be awesome!

2

I encountered this issue not long ago while working on an automation project. It was frustrating to see that the Drive API always creates a default sheet that you cannot bypass. In my case, I created the spreadsheet using the Drive API and then immediately used the Sheets API to clear all the default content and formatting. I even went as far as renaming the sheet to keep things consistent. Although this process adds an extra API call, the impact on performance was minimal. This method has been the most effective workaround for achieving an empty sheet.

3

I recently encountered a similar issue while working on automating Sheets creation. It turns out that using the Drive API to create a new spreadsheet always results in a default sheet that contains some preset cells. Although it isn’t possible to generate a completely blank spreadsheet directly, I managed to work around it by using the Sheets API right after creating the file. I cleared the default content, which effectively gave me a clean canvas for further modifications. This approach isn’t perfect, but it comes close to replicating a truly empty Sheet.

4

hey MiaDragon42, I’ve run into this too! sadly there’s no way to make a totally blank sheet via the API :frowning: the default sheet always shows up. best workaround i found is to delete that first sheet right after creation using the Sheets API. not ideal but it works!