Google Sheets: INDIRECT() with a Range

Question

This question could be rephrased to, \"Using a programmatically generated range in FILTER()\" depending on the approach one takes to answer it.

EDIT- It seems that I ina

Answer 1

The OP's existing solution is based on Filter command. The challenge is that the column containing "student.grade" is not fixed, however player0 has provided an excellent formula-based solution.

An alternative might be to make use of a named range. The following code finds "student.grades" in the header (row 1) and re-defines the named range accordingly.

function so54541923() {

  // setup the spreadsheet
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var sheetname = "Data Import";
  var sheet = ss.getSheetByName(sheetname);

  // define the header row
  var getlastColumn = sheet.getLastColumn();
  var headerRange = sheet.getRange(1, 1, 1, getlastColumn);
  Logger.log("DEBUG: Header range = " + headerRange.getA1Notation()); //DEBUG

  // assign a variable for student Grades
  var grades = "student.grade";

  // get the headers and find the column containing "student grades"
  var headerData = headerRange.getValues();
  var gradesIndex = headerData[0].indexOf(grades);
  // add one to the index number to account for start=zero
  gradesIndex = gradesIndex + 1;
  Logger.log("DEBUG: gradesIndex = " + gradesIndex); //DEBUG

  // convert the column number to a letter 
  // assumes that student.grade will never get past column Z
  var temp, letter = '';
  if (gradesIndex > 0) {
    temp = (gradesIndex - 1) % 26;
    letter = String.fromCharCode(temp + 65) + letter;
    gradesIndex = (gradesIndex - temp - 1) / 26;
  }
  Logger.log("DEBUG: the column is " + letter); //DEBUG

  //var newrange = "'" + sheetname + "'!"+letter+":"+letter+";";
  // Logger.log("the new range is "+newrange); 

  // get the named ranges
  var namedRanges = ss.getNamedRanges();
  Logger.log("DEBUG: number of ranges: " + namedRanges.length); //DEBUG

  // if named range is student grades, then update range
  if (namedRanges.length > 0) {
    for (var i = 0; i < namedRanges.length; i++) {
      var thename = namedRanges[i].getName();
      Logger.log("DEBUG: Loop: i: " + i + ", and the named range is " + thename); //DEBUG
      if (thename = "student.grade") {

        // Logger.log("DEBUG: The named range is student.grade");//DEBUG

        // set the new range based on the column found earlier
        var nonstringrange = sheet.getRange("'" + sheetname + "'!" + letter + ":" + letter);
        namedRanges[i].setRange(nonstringrange);
        Logger.log("DEBUG: The new range is " + namedRanges[i].getRange().getA1Notation()); //DEBUG

      } else {
        Logger.log("DEBUG: The named range is NOT grades"); //DEBUG
      }
    }
  }
}