Unmerge Google Sheets Cells Using Google Sheets API PHP Client

Separate all cells in the given range by selecting merged rows and columns using the method spreadsheets.batchUpdate with request UnmergeCellsRequest. This will unmerge cells of Google Spreadsheets using Google Sheets API PHP Client.

This is a follow up and the result of the tutorial Merge Google Sheets Cells Using Google Sheets API PHP Client will be used as the sample spreadsheet where the merged cells will be unmerged.

The goal of this tutorial is to unmerge cells of Google Spreadsheets using Google Sheets API PHP Client.

Requirements:

Step 1.

Prepare the needed parameters.

$spreadsheetId

The $spreadsheetId parameter.

A value that is unique containing letters, numbers, hyphens, or underscores. You can find a spreadsheetId in a Google Sheets URL if you have not saved it somewhere.

/**
 * Set up parameters.
 */
$spreadsheetId = 'Your spreadsheetId here.';

php

The $range parameter.

This is the range value of the merged cells you would want to distinctly separate or unmerged.

/**
 * Get the range of the merged
 * cells to-be unmerged.
 */
$range = ['startRowIndex'=> 1, 'endRowIndex'=> 3, 'startColumnIndex'=> 1, 'endColumnIndex'=> 3];

Step 2.

Inside your working directory, create a file (unmerge-google-sheets-cells.php), and copy/paste the following codes. The paremeters from Step 1 are already included below.

<?php

// Autoload Composer.
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

if (php_sapi_name() != 'cli') {
    throw new Exception('This application must be run on the command line.');
}

use Google\Client;
use Google\Service\Sheets\ValueRange;

/**
 * Returns an authorized API client.
 * @return Client the authorized client object.
 */
function getClient()
{
    $client = new Google\Client();
    $client->setApplicationName('Google Sheets API PHP Quickstart');
    $client->setScopes('https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets');
    $client->setAuthConfig('credentials.json');
    $client->setAccessType('offline');
    $client->setPrompt('select_account consent');

    // Load previously authorized token from a file, if it exists.
    // The file token.json stores the user's access and refresh tokens, and is
    // created automatically when the authorization flow completes for the first
    // time.
    $tokenPath = 'token.json';
    if (file_exists($tokenPath)) {
        $accessToken = json_decode(file_get_contents($tokenPath), true);
        $client->setAccessToken($accessToken);
    }

    // If there is no previous token or it's expired.
    if ($client->isAccessTokenExpired()) {
        // Refresh the token if possible, else fetch a new one.
        if ($client->getRefreshToken()) {
            $client->fetchAccessTokenWithRefreshToken($client->getRefreshToken());
        } else {
            // Request authorization from the user.
            $authUrl = $client->createAuthUrl();
            printf("Open the following link in your browser:\n%s\n", $authUrl);
            print 'Enter verification code: ';
            $authCode = trim(fgets(STDIN));

            // Exchange authorization code for an access token.
            $accessToken = $client->fetchAccessTokenWithAuthCode($authCode);
            $client->setAccessToken($accessToken);

            // Check to see if there was an error.
            if (array_key_exists('error', $accessToken)) {
                throw new Exception(join(', ', $accessToken));
            }
        }
        // Save the token to a file.
        if (!file_exists(dirname($tokenPath))) {
            mkdir(dirname($tokenPath), 0700, true);
        }
        file_put_contents($tokenPath, json_encode($client->getAccessToken()));
    }
    return $client;
}

function unmergeCells($spreadsheetId, $range)
{
    $client = getClient();
    $service = new Google_Service_Sheets($client);
    try{
        $requests = [
            new Google_Service_Sheets_Request([
                'ununmergeCells'   => [
                    'range'    => $range,
                ],
            ])
        ];

        $batchUpdateRequest = new Google_Service_Sheets_BatchUpdateSpreadsheetRequest([
            'requests' => $requests
        ]);

        $response = $service->spreadsheets->batchUpdate($spreadsheetId, $batchUpdateRequest);

        echo 'Unmerging of cells of Spreadsheet ID ' . $response->getSpreadsheetId() . ' was successful.';

        return $response;
    }
    catch(Exception $e) {
        // TODO(developer) - handle error appropriately
        echo 'Message: ' .$e->getMessage();
    }
}

/**
 * Set up parameters.
 */
$spreadsheetId = 'Your spreadsheetId here.';

/**
 * Get the range of the merged
 * cells to-be unmerged.
 */
$range = ['startRowIndex'=> 1, 'endRowIndex'=> 3, 'startColumnIndex'=> 1, 'endColumnIndex'=> 3];

/**
 * Attempt to update spreadsheet.
 */
unmergeCells($spreadsheetId, $range);

unmerge-google-sheets-cells.php

Note that if any request is not valid then the entire request will fail and nothing will be applied because each request is validated before being applied.

Step 3.

Execute the following command to perform the unmerging of cells of the Google Spreadsheet.

$ php unmerge-google-sheets-cells.php

command line

If successful, the response will be like below.

$ php unmerge-google-sheets-cells.php
Unmerging of cells of Spreadsheet ID 'Your spreadsheetId here.' was successful.

Done.

We have unmerged cells of the Google Spreadsheet from the command line in PHP using Google Sheets API PHP Client Library.

Result.

Before.

After.