Services Plugins FAQs

Unable to write " (double quotations) into a cell in the Google Sheets and Charts plug-in

Help Needed
#1

Hi there!

I can’t seem to be able to write " into a cell in the Google Sheets and Charts plug-in. This seems fairly crucial to being able to write strings in function arguments and to reference de-limiters. When I type it in the error that comes up is…

The service Google Sheets - Write to a Cell just returned an error (HTTP 400). Please contact the plugin author directly for feedback. Raw error:

{
“error”: {
“code”: 400,
“message”: “Invalid JSON payload received. Expected , or ] after array value.\n “values”: [ [”""] ]\n }\n ]\n}\n ^",
“status”: “INVALID_ARGUMENT”
}
}

Is there an equivalent character I can use? Or is there a way of making not give this error?

Many thanks!

Jemima

#2

Hello, @jemimacoulter. Thanks for reaching out.
Please accept my apologies for the late reply.

The plugin, particularly the Write into a cell action, sends the API request in JSON format, which uses " (double quotes) for the variable declaration (in our case, to contain user’s input). The error you have received is expected, because of the above fact.

Indeed, in such cases we recommend our users to refuse from ", and use '. Have you tried using it? Seems to work fine on the demo.

Hope it helps. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
#3

Hi @kate!
No worries at all:)

I have tried using the single quotations but unfortunately, I get an error message whenever I’m using them inside Google Sheet functions such as ‘JOIN’ or ‘SUBSTITUTE’ or anything that requires a string as an argument.

For example: typing =JOIN(’, ', {1,2,3}, {4,5,6}) gives #ERROR rather than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Is there any way of changing this? Or should I just try working around it…

Thanks so much!

Jemima

#4

@jemimacoulter,
Please accept my apologies for the late reply.

There is another alternative, fortunately. :slightly_smiling_face:
You can use double-quotes too, but you have to “cover” them with slashes. For example, if your formula is using double-quotes like this:
=JOIN(",", {1,2,3}, {4,5,6})
cover the double-quotes with the slash symbol this way:
=JOIN(\",\", {1,2,3}, {4,5,6})

Please let me know if it did help.
Regards,

1 Like
#5

Ah amazing that’s perfect! Thanks @kate !

1 Like
#6

@jemimacoulter,

You are always welcome. :slightly_smiling_face:
Feel free to reach out when you have any questions. Or rate the plugin, if you feel it deserves some good mark :smiley:

Have a great day!