Create A Unique ID Using A Custom Function In Google Sheets

April 5, 2023 • Google Apps Script, Google Sheets • Published By Josh • 2 minute read

Have you ever needed to uniquely identify a row in Google Sheets? You could use the row number, but if users move or delete rows, the numbers would change. What you need is a unique id for each row. Learn how to create a custom function that returns a unique id in Google Sheets!

Table of Contents

• Create A Custom Function
• Use A Custom Function

Create A Custom Function

1. Open your spreadsheet and navigate to Extensions > Apps Script.
2. The Apps Script Editor will open with a single script file called Code.gs.
3. An empty function will default in. You can remove it.
4. Give your untitled project a name.

In the Apps Script code editor, create a function called UUID.

function UUID() {

}

Apps Script provides a Utilities class with a getUuid method. All we have to do is return it in the function.

return Utilities.getUuid();

Here’s the final code for the UUID function.

function UUID() {
  return Utilities.getUuid();
}

Use A Custom Function

Using a custom function is no different than using the many functions Google Sheets provides. Within the cell, enter the function:

=UUID()

The result will be a unique id!

baceef3c-f633-4deb-94db-1c17a2105719

You can also use functions (and custom functions) when inserting rows. For example, when using the appendRow method of the Sheet class.

const sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName('Users');

sheet.appendRow([
  '=UUID()',
  'John',
  'Smith'
]);

You can now uniquely identify rows using the id! This can be useful when making an edit to a specific row!

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