A sheet (also called a tab) is an individual workspace within a Spreadsheet. Each sheet contains a grid of cells organized into rows and columns.
Structure
Each sheet is identified by a unique sheet ID (also called gid), which appears in URLs as:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/SPREADSHEET_ID/edit#gid=SHEET_ID
The first sheet in a new spreadsheet typically has gid=0.
Terminology
WARNING
The term “sheet” can cause confusion:
- In the Google Sheets UI, these are called “sheets” or “tabs”
- In Google Apps Script, the equivalent object is called
Sheet- In casual usage, people often say “spreadsheet” when referring to a sheet
See Spreadsheet for the container file that holds multiple sheets.
Sheet Types
Sheets can be one of several types:
- GRID — standard grid of cells (most common)
- OBJECT — for embedded charts or images
- DATA_SOURCE — connected to external data sources
Properties
Sheets have various properties including:
- Title — the sheet name shown on the tab
- Index — position in the tab bar (0-based)
- Grid properties — row count, column count, frozen rows/columns
- Hidden — whether the sheet is visible
- Tab color — visual identification color
- Right-to-left — text direction setting
Components
A sheet can contain:
- Grid data — the actual cell values and formatting
- Conditional format rules — apply formatting based on cell values
- Filter views — saved filter configurations
- Protected ranges — cells with restricted editing
- Merges — merged cell ranges
- Charts — embedded visualizations
- Banded ranges — alternating row/column colors
API Reference
For complete API documentation, see Sheet resource.
See Also
- Spreadsheet — the container file for sheets
- Range — how ranges reference sheet cells
- Data type — types of data stored in cells