Hey everyone! I’m having trouble with Google Sheets. I want to filter my data so it only shows cells with Japanese text. I tried using a custom formula, but it’s not working right. Here’s what I put in:
=REGEXMATCH(A:A, "[\p{Script=Hiragana}\p{Script=Katakana}\p{Script=Han}]")
When I use this, nothing shows up at all. The whole column just disappears. Am I missing something obvious? Maybe there’s a better way to do this? I’d really appreciate any help or tips you can give me. Thanks in advance!
hey there, HappyDancer99! i’ve run into similar issues before. have u tried using the ARRAYFORMULA function? it might help. also, double-check ur regex pattern - sometimes tiny errors can mess everything up. good luck with ur japanese filtering! let us know if u figure it out 
I’ve dealt with similar challenges in my work with multilingual data. Here’s what worked for me:
Instead of using REGEXMATCH directly in the filter view, try creating a helper column first. In a new column, let’s say B, use this formula:
=ARRAYFORMULA(IF(LEN(A:A)=0,REGEXMATCH(A:A,“[\p{Script=Hiragana}\p{Script=Katakana}\p{Script=Han}]”)))
This will return TRUE for cells containing Japanese text. Then, in your filter view, just filter column B to show only TRUE values.
This approach has been more reliable in my experience, especially with large datasets. It also makes it easier to troubleshoot if something goes wrong.
Hope this helps you out. Let us know if you need any clarification on implementing this method.
I’ve encountered this issue before. The problem likely lies in the regex pattern. Try simplifying it to:
=REGEXMATCH(A:A, “[\p{Han}\p{Hiragana}\p{Katakana}]”)
This should capture all Japanese characters. If it still doesn’t work, consider using the FILTER function instead:
=FILTER(A:A, REGEXMATCH(A:A, “[\p{Han}\p{Hiragana}\p{Katakana}]”) )
This approach might be more reliable for filtering entire columns. Remember to adjust the column reference if needed. Hope this helps solve your problem.