Looking for help with Python and Google Sheets integration
I’m trying to figure out how to work with Google Sheets using Python code. My goal is to extract data from existing spreadsheets, filter it based on specific column values (similar to database queries), process that information, and then export the results to new Google Sheets documents.
I’ve been searching for proper documentation and tutorials but haven’t found clear examples yet. If anyone has experience with this kind of automation, I’d really appreciate some guidance or sample code to get started.
The main tasks I need to accomplish are:
Reading data from Google Sheets
Filtering rows based on column criteria
Writing processed results back to new sheets
Any recommendations for libraries or approaches that work well for this type of project?
Google’s Python client library works great if you don’t mind extra setup. More code but you get full control. Just enable the Sheets API first or you’ll waste hours on cryptic errors lol. And cache your auth tokens - reauthenticating every run is wasteful.
pygsheets is my go-to for this stuff. Handles the Google Sheets API well and the docs are actually readable, unlike most alternatives. Set up a service account in Google Cloud Console and download the JSON credentials - keep that file secure. Here’s what I learned the hard way: structure your pipeline right. Pull sheet data into a DataFrame, do all filtering/processing locally, then push clean results back. API calls are your bottleneck so keep them minimal. You can work with multiple worksheets in the same spreadsheet object too, which cuts down on auth overhead. The library handles cell formatting pretty well if you need to preserve styling in new sheets.
Been doing Google Sheets automation for two years - here’s what actually works. Start with gspread library. Authentication’s smooth and the syntax isn’t too bad once you figure it out. Use service account credentials instead of OAuth. Way more stable for scripts that run on their own. Heads up - Google’s API has quotas and they’ll block you fast if you spam requests. Add rate limiting or you’ll learn this the hard way like I did. For filtering, pull everything into pandas dataframes first, filter there, then write back to sheets. Don’t try filtering row by row through the API - it’s painfully slow. Batch your writes too instead of hitting individual cells. Performance difference is night and day.