Easy methods to use Google Bard with Google Sheets

Moving from Google Bard to Google Sheets.
Illustration: Andy Wolber/TechRepublic

Google Bard will help you create content material and calculations for Google Sheets. Within the first position, Bard serves as a wise listing generator that produces content material in a desk so that you can export to a Google Sheet. Within the latter position, Bard’s responses make it easier to devise Google Sheets formulation and capabilities. These makes use of of Bard supply capabilities that reach past the usual autofill and correction capabilities in Google Sheets.

SEE: ChatGPT vs Google Bard (2023): An in-depth comparability (TechRepublic)

For the actions beneath, you’ll must be signed in to an energetic Google account approved to make use of each Google Sheets and Google Bard. When you use a Google Workspace account for work or faculty, you might have to contact an administrator to request entry to Bard. After you have entry, open Bard in any trendy browser to get began. Enter a pure language immediate, and Bard will present a response. Bard responses might differ — two individuals who enter the identical immediate might not obtain the identical response.

Leap to:

Easy methods to receive content material from Bard for a Google Sheet

With Bard, you may immediate the system for all kinds of comparisons and lists. For instance, a request to check two or extra merchandise may produce a desk with a column for every product and every row with a special in contrast function (Determine A). You may additionally immediate Bard for lists of issues, equivalent to folks, locations or issues. Since Bard accepts sequences, you may first immediate:

Checklist the ten cities in america with probably the most annual rainfall.

Then, after you obtain the preliminary response, immediate once more with:

Add a column for the inhabitants.

Determine A

Bard can help you quickly obtain all sorts of comparisons and lists. When Bard provides a response in a table, select Export To Sheets to create a new Google Sheet with the table contents.
Bard will help you shortly receive all kinds of comparisons and lists. When Bard gives a response in a desk, choose Export To Sheets to create a brand new Google Sheet with the desk contents.

The tables Bard can generate as a response differ way more than typical autocomplete sequences accessible in Google Sheets with the Instruments | Autocomplete | Allow Autocomplete Possibility enabled.

In Google Sheets, you enter a predictable collection of alphabetical letters, numbers, days of the week, months or different normal patterns in two or extra cells. Then choose the cells and select-and-extend the nook of the field to cowl the whole vary of to-be-filled cells. For instance, for those who kind Mon in a single cell and Tue in an adjoining cell, you might choose these two cells after which drag the dot to fill one other 5 cells with the remaining respective three-character descriptions of days of the week in English. In distinction, the tables you may immediate Bard to create might comprise a a lot wider vary of listable knowledge.

Select Export To Sheets

When a response features a desk, choose the Export To Sheets possibility on the lower-right nook of the desk. This exports the desk to a brand new Google Sheet (Determine A). The system will use your immediate as each the identify of the newly created file and the preliminary sheet inside the file. The contents of the desk will likely be positioned within the cells of the sheet, with the titles of the columns in Row A.

Immediate “in a desk”

Bard will typically mechanically format comparisons and lists in a desk. When the system doesn’t do that, add the phrase “in a desk” to your request. This might make the immediate listed above to be:

In a desk, listing the 20 cities in america with probably the most annual rainfall.

View different drafts or reset chat

Generally Bard gives both a partial response or an oddly formatted response. For instance, strive the immediate:

Checklist all 50 U.S. states sorted by inhabitants.

Bard returned a desk of 40 states, which is an incomplete response. In one other instance, a immediate for a:

Checklist of components by identify and atomic weight

In response, Bard produced a listing formatted as a code snippet, not a desk. When a response isn’t what you anticipate, choose the View Different Drafts button to entry various drafts (Determine B). In some circumstances, a type of drafts will likely be formatted as a desk fairly than a code snippet.

An alternative choice when this kind of error happens is to pick the Reset Chat button (as proven in Determine B on the higher left) after which strive the immediate once more. This may occasionally end in a extra full or better-formatted response.

Determine B

View other drafts to access alternatively formatted responses, which sometimes display data in a table rather than a list format. In some cases, selecting Reset Chat and trying your prompt again may return a response in the format you want.
View different drafts to entry alternatively formatted responses, which typically show knowledge in a desk fairly than a listing format. In some circumstances, choosing Reset Chat and attempting your immediate once more might return a response within the format you need.

Easy methods to get assist from Bard with a Google Sheets calculation

You might immediate Bard to clarify and supply examples of Google Sheets formulation and capabilities. In contrast to Google Sheets assist pages, which give particulars and a static set of examples, you might ask Bard for a wide range of examples, together with an in depth description of how a function works.

For instance, if you wish to study a bit extra about one of many new functions Google added to Sheets in March 2023, you may immediate:

How do I exploit the WRAPCOLS operate in a Google Sheet? Are you able to give an instance of how I'd use it to group a listing of worker names into teams of 4 folks every?

The response from Bard (Determine C) included, in sequence:

  • An outline of how the operate is used
  • A code snippet instance of the syntax with every half listed
  • A pattern components to group a listing right into a set of 4
  • An instance with demo names
  • Further code examples to group a listing into units of three, 5 or seven

Determine C

Not only can Bard explain Google Sheets functions, but it can also offer examples of how the function might be used.
Not solely can Bard clarify Google Sheets capabilities, however it could actually additionally supply examples of how the operate may be used.

To discover extra Google Sheets capabilities, you may then immediate:

Are there different Google Sheets capabilities that obtain one thing related?

Bard tends to supply just a few different capabilities that assist with associated elements of your preliminary process.

As well as, Bard will help you create the precise components you want, however it could be a little bit of a technique of trial and error. For instance, say you wish to analyze climate knowledge to establish what number of days the wind was predominantly from the west. First, strive an preliminary detailed immediate (Determine D).

I've a Google Sheet with knowledge in cells F2 by F367. The information is all numbers, from 0 to 359, and represents wind path, with 0 being the north and 270 being the west. I would really like a components to point the share of days that the wind is from the west, the place the worth is wherever between 240 and 270 levels. Are you able to present that?

Determine D

With a sufficiently detailed prompt, Bard can respond with a detailed code snippet that contains a Google Sheets function. While not necessarily always accurate, this snippet can often serve as the basis for the precise formula you want.
With a sufficiently detailed immediate, Bard can reply with an in depth code snippet that incorporates a Google Sheets operate. Whereas not essentially at all times correct, this snippet can typically function the idea for the exact components you need.

The response returned an =COUNTIF components that threw an error. After a fast evaluate of the operate, immediate once more, primarily asking Bard to strive once more:

I feel the vary indicator portion must be completely different. Perhaps a logical AND not a textual content subject?

This time, the response included a =COUNTIFS components. Choose the Copy Code button, swap to the Google Sheet, navigate to the meant vacation spot cell after which select Edit | Paste so as to add the components. This time, with a little bit of tweaking, the code snippet labored as desired (Determine E).

Determine E

With minor tweaks, the code snippet response provided by Bard delivered the desired calculation.
With minor tweaks, the code snippet response offered by Bard delivered the specified calculation.

And that’s a superb snapshot of how you could work with Bard. If the preliminary response meets your wants, that’s nice! However at all times take the time to verify the outcomes for accuracy and be ready to immediate once more — and immediate in another way — to evoke a extra related, helpful or correct response.