Basic Structure

Starsheet does not impose strict structure requirements for your spreadsheet. The only requirement is that Starsheet assumes your data has a single heading row which will be used for the JSON keys.

Basic Structure

By default, each worksheet from your spreadsheet will be output as an array of JSON objects, with each object representing a row in that spreadsheet. For example:

{
  "worksheet_name": [
	  {
		  "your_column_name": "Foo"
	  },
	  {
		  "your_column_name": "Bar"
	  }
  ],
  "another_worksheet": [
	...
  ]
}

Google Sheet Features

Supported Features

The following Google Sheet features are known to work with Starsheet. Most will have no impact on the output data, but editor-facing features like Data Validation and Conditional Formatting can be used to create a robust editing experience that minimises bugs caused by data issues.

Feature	Comment
Formulas	The JSON output will contain the value outputted by the formula as displayed in Google Sheets
Tables	No impact on JSON output but useful to create a robust editing experience
Drop Downs	No impact on JSON output but useful to create a robust editing experience
Tickboxes	Output as TRUE or FALSE in JSON output
Data Validation	No impact on JSON output but useful to enforce rules to ensure the generated JSON is compatible with your application(s)
Conditional Formatting	No impact on JSON output but useful to create a robust editing experience
Protected Sheets/Ranges	No impact on JSON output but allows you to put access controls in place to limit who can edit certain fields

Unsupported Features

Feature	Comment
Text Formatting	Text formatting such as bold, italic, font colours and background colours will be ignored
Hidden Rows/Columns	Data from hidden ranges will be included in the output. See instructions on how to hide data in Starsheet
Filters	Filters will be ignored. Data hidden by filters will still appear in the output

Naming Conventions

Starsheet does not impose any naming convention for worksheets and fields. The JSON output will mirror the exact names used in the Google Sheet to ensure interoperability with all programming languages and frameworks.

Whilst you are free to include spaces and a mix of capitalisation in your worksheet and field names, we strongly recommend adopting a consistent naming convention such as snake_case, camelCase or PascalCase.

In the future, we may introduce a project-level setting to automatically convert spreadsheets to your preferred naming convention. Please contact us if this feature is important to you and you wish to be an early adopter.

Special/Reserved Characters

The following symbols are used by Starsheet to trigger specific behaviours so should not be used in field and/or worksheet names unless you are looking to trigger the functionality described.

Symbol	Description	Scope	How it’s used
#	Hash	Worksheet and Column Names	Used to hide a worksheet or row.
$	Dollar Sign	Worksheet Names
.	Period	Column Names	Used in column titles to define data to be output as a JSON Object.
[]	Square Brackets	Column Names	Used in column titles to defined fields to be combined into an array,
!	Exclamation Mark	Column Names	Used to trigger specific functionality such as hiding rows or causing a sheet to be output as key-value pairs.
:	Colon	Column Names	Reserved for future use
?	Question Mark	Column Names	Reserved for future use
<>	Triangle Brackets	Column Names	Reserved for future use

Advanced Formatting

Combining columns into an array

Combining columns into an object

Hiding sheets, columns or rows

Modifying JSON document structure