# The Googly Advantage ## Google's Provided "Quick Start" The sample code that Google provides is quite verbose. Here is their [provided code](https://github.com/googleworkspace/python-samples/blob/bc9577f713dd221bee3d61de65e4d553810d62a9/sheets/quickstart/quickstart.py#L16-L80) from their [quickstart](https://developers.google.com/sheets/api/quickstart/python) for retrieving values from a spreadsheet. ```python import os.path from google.auth.transport.requests import Request from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials from google_auth_oauthlib.flow import InstalledAppFlow from googleapiclient.discovery import build from googleapiclient.errors import HttpError # If modifying these scopes, delete the file token.json. SCOPES = ["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets.readonly"] # The ID and range of a sample spreadsheet. SAMPLE_SPREADSHEET_ID = "1BxiMVs0XRA5nFMdKvBdBZjgmUUqptlbs74OgvE2upms" SAMPLE_RANGE_NAME = "Class Data!A2:E" def main(): """Shows basic usage of the Sheets API. Prints values from a sample spreadsheet. """ creds = None # 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. if os.path.exists("token.json"): creds = Credentials.from_authorized_user_file("token.json", SCOPES) # If there are no (valid) credentials available, let the user log in. if not creds or not creds.valid: if creds and creds.expired and creds.refresh_token: creds.refresh(Request()) else: flow = InstalledAppFlow.from_client_secrets_file( "credentials.json", SCOPES ) creds = flow.run_local_server(port=0) # Save the credentials for the next run with open("token.json", "w") as token: token.write(creds.to_json()) try: service = build("sheets", "v4", credentials=creds) # Call the Sheets API sheet = service.spreadsheets() result = ( sheet.values() .get(spreadsheetId=SAMPLE_SPREADSHEET_ID, range=SAMPLE_RANGE_NAME) .execute() ) values = result.get("values", []) if not values: print("No data found.") return print("Name, Major:") for row in values: # Print columns A and E, which correspond to indices 0 and 4. print(f"{row[0]}, {row[4]}") except HttpError as err: print(err) if __name__ == "__main__": main() ``` Much of the code is boilerplate for getting/saving authentication information. The actual call to get values involves a lot of subcomponents. 1. `service` 2. `spreadsheets` 3. `values` 4. `get` 5. `execute` 6. `get` ## Equivalent `googly` Code ```python from googly import SheetsAPI # The ID and range of a sample spreadsheet. SAMPLE_SPREADSHEET_ID = "1BxiMVs0XRA5nFMdKvBdBZjgmUUqptlbs74OgvE2upms" SAMPLE_RANGE_NAME = "Class Data!A2:E" def main(): """Shows basic usage of the Sheets API. Prints values from a sample spreadsheet. """ service = SheetsAPI() service.set_sheet_id(SAMPLE_SPREADSHEET_ID) values = service.get_range(SAMPLE_RANGE_NAME) if not values: print("No data found.") return print("Name, Major:") for row in values: # Print columns A and E, which correspond to indices 0 and 4. print(f"{row[0]}, {row[4]}") if __name__ == "__main__": main() ``` This code is a lot simpler, partially because it makes some assumptions, which we'll discuss in the next section.