Split Sheet will divide your Google Sheets table into several sheets based on the contents in the selected columns or the number of rows. The resulting sheets can be placed to the same file next to the source sheet, to a completely new Google spreadsheet, or to multiple separate spreadsheets next to the original file. They will also auto-update with your source table if you opt to return the results as a formula.
Please bear in mind that Google Sheets limits the total number of possible cells in your file to 10 million cells.
If there are filtered or/and hidden rows in your sheet, they will also be processed and split into multiple sheets with all the visible records.
Open the sheet you want to split and go to Extensions > Split Sheet > Start:
Tip. You will also find Split Sheet in Power Tools. Just proceed to the Split group and look for the add-on icon:
You can choose any other table in your file by picking any cell within that table and hitting Auto select. The add-on will highlight all cells with data till the first empty row & column.
Tip. Or click the Select range icon within the Source range field and specify the exact range to process:
If columns in your sheet have labels, check the option My table has headers. In this case, each new sheet will contain the same set of titles copied from this original table.
Click Next, and depending on the hand-picked way to split, the next step will invite you to choose either columns or rows to split by.
If you chose to split your Google sheet by columns on the previous step, they will appear grouped in the table:
When you're ready, press Split.
If you chose to split your Google sheet by N rows on the previous step, here you will need to specify those numbers:
Tip. Skip the number for the last row to process all remaining rows for the last sheet, e.g. 1:70, 70:
When the numbers are set, hit Split.
Once the add-on divides the table, you will see the confirmation message saying how many new sheets have been created and where they have been placed.
When you split a sheet using a formula and put the results either into a new spreadsheet or multiple separate spreadsheets, the add-on will use not just our custom functions for the job, but also the standard Google Sheets IMPORTRANGE function to pull split data.
By default, IMPORTRANGE requires your permission to connect to the original file. Hence, you must open each new spreadsheet and grant IMPORTRANGE access manually. Otherwise, you will see formula errors rather than split data. The steps below will help you do that correctly:
Just hover your mouse over the formula error under Access status and press Allow access:
When all required cells are green (meaning you've started Split Sheet & connected IMPORTRANGE), go to the split sheets and wait a bit till the result loads.
When splitting by column values, the formula initially creates sheets only for the values that exist in your data during the split. For example, if your column includes Berry and Melon as values but doesn't include Citrus, no sheet will be created for Citrus.
However, if new rows appear for Berry or Melon, they will automatically appear in the corresponding split sheets.
If you later want to see sheets for completely new values (like Citrus), you don't need to restart the tool — especially if collaborators are already working with the existing sheets. Instead, you can manually modify the formula to include these values and create the corresponding sheets. Follow these steps:
The formula will update and pull all current and future results for these new values (Citrus and 20).
The add-on splits data by a set number of rows creating only as many sheets as your selected range allows. To ensure new rows are included automatically and split into sheets, you’ll need to plan ahead by selecting a larger range. Here's how:
This will account for empty rows where new data will appear.
Along with our own custom functions, the resulting formula uses some standard ones including QUERY and IMPORTRANGE. Here are some things you should know about the result returned by the formula:
Note. Make sure there are no completely empty rows within the table — this will also affect the result.
If you split the sheets often and mostly use the same settings for that, scenarios will help you set up everything once and run in just a click later on.
A scenario is a saved set of those options that you select on each step of the add-on. Once the data is split, you can save the options the add-on has just used into a new scenario. In the future, you can run the whole tool in just a click: by running this scenario.
To save the settings into a scenario, go over all the steps, split the data, and when you see the resulting message, click Save scenario:
You will see a short summary of all options you have used just now — this is your scenario preview:
Note. These settings cannot be modified here. If you want to adjust some of them, you will need to restart the add-on and fine-tune the options while going through the steps.
Once you're ready, click Save.
To start the scenario, go to Extensions > Split Sheet > Scenarios, select the required scenario and click Start.
Note. If you don't see Scenarios in the menu, just open the add-on itself once. This is necessary for new spreadsheets (or those where the add-on hasn't been run yet). Your scenario (and all future ones) will then appear in the menu automatically.
Split Sheet will begin splitting data according to the scenario settings.
Once it's done, you will get the result message saying what scenario has just worked and what it's processed:
To review the scenario setting or to change the sheet and/or the range it handles, go to the same Extensions > Split Sheet > Scenarios menu, pick the scenario and select Edit:
You will see the whole scenario outline again:
You can rename it and change the sheet and the range to process.
If you make any changes, press Save to keep them. Click Run to start the scenario with the new changes right away, or hit Delete to remove it completely.
You can easily export one or more scenarios and share them with your teammates or sync across your different Google accounts.
To share a single scenario, go to Extensions > Split Sheet > Scenarios > desired scenario > Export & share:
The add-on will prompt you to save the scenario on your computer:
Click Save, and your browser will download the file based on your downloading settings. Once the file is saved, close the add-on window.
You can now share the file with anyone using Split Sheet, and they’ll be able to import this scenario directly to their tool.
To export all the scenarios you’ve created, navigate to Extensions > Split Sheet > Scenarios, then select Export & share all scenarios:
The add-on will notify you that all scenarios will be saved to your computer:
Click Save, and let your browser download the file. After saving, you can close the add-on window.
Now you can send this file to other people using Split Sheet, and they’ll be able to import all the scenarios into their tool.
To bring in scenarios shared with you, go to Split Sheet > Scenarios > Import scenarios:
The add-on will ask you to choose the file with the saved scenarios from your computer. Click Browse:
After importing, you'll see a confirmation message with the number of scenarios successfully added:
Tip. The add-on imports all scenarios from the file by default. If conflicts occur with your already existing scenarios, you’ll be notified.
You’ll find all imported scenarios under Split Sheet > Scenarios, ready to be used or modified:
Responses
Is there a way when using the split sheets add-on to copy the first 2 rows of the original data to the new tabs?
Hello Gina,
Thank you for your question. At the moment, only the first row of the selected range is considered as the header when the "My table has headers" option is selected. We appreciate your suggestion to support multiple header rows, and we have submitted it as a feature request to our development team.
I have tried to use the Split Sheet add on today and do not see the auto-update functionality working.
Hello Michaela,
Thank you for your comment. The feature is currently available in a standalone Split Sheet only. It will be added to Power Tools soon.
How can I make the data update automatic, I did split my sheets but how can I make the new sheets I split get updated whenever the source sheet is updated?
Hello Dounia,
Thank you for your question. Sorry, we don't have the requested functionality yet. I will forward your idea to our dev team for consideration.
Hello Dounia,
I'm happy to let you know that the feature has been implemented for when you split by common values! The updated version of the add-on should already be available to you.
Hello, I would like to ask if there is any problem in using it even if I purchase it with a team account rather than a personal Google account.
Hello Hyeji,
Thank you for your question. The billing email address you use when making a purchase won't influence the activation of the add-on. You can install and activate the tool under any Google account you choose.
Hey. I am trying to split my spreadsheet every 1500 rows, but it only does one range.
I also tried adding the ranges i wanted to split butit only gives me one.
Hello Edward,
Thank you for your comment.
Please note that the tool can process just one sheet from your Google spreadsheet at a time. If there are several sheets in your file and you want to split each of them by 1500 rows, then you first need to combine the data from all your sheets into one, and then run the Split Sheet tool again. To join tables from multiple sheets together, you can use the Combine Sheets tool.
If it is not your case, then please describe your task in more detail and send us a few screenshots showing what data you have, what result you want to get, what options for the add-on you choose. You can email the details to support@ablebits.com. We'll help you further.
Hi,
I would like to ask how can I split a sheet based on the alphabetical order on one column.
I have a list of several thousand of records and I need to split them in alphabetical order on different sheets.
Is there any way to do that with Ablebits? Tried some solutions here proposed but with no success
Hi Marco,
Thank you for your question.
If I understand your task right, first you need to sort your key column in an alphabetical order using the standard Sort option in Google Sheets. Then extract the first letter from the values in the key column in a separate column with the help of our Extract tool.
After that, you can split your sheet based on the extracted letters in the new column with the Split Sheet add-on.
If this solution doesn't work for you, feel free to email us at support@ablebits.com for further assistance.
How can I split sheets based upon a criteria. For example I have a column named state. I want to ONLY create a new sheet with the rows that have "NC" (for North Carolina) and another sheet with the remaining rows. I don't want to create 50 separate sheets for each state.
Hello Da'Quan Love,
Thank you for your comment.
Unfortunately, the Split Sheet tool won't help you to get the result you need since it doesn't support custom conditions. However, you can use another tool - Multiple VLOOKUP Matches - to solve your task. It will help you to pull out the rows according to the condition(s) you specify to another sheet.
If you have any questions or need further assistance, please email us at support@ablebits.com.
Is there a way to get the new tabs or spreadsheets to automatically update if the source data is changed? Lets say a date in one of the rows changes. Can it automatically update that same field on the separate tab or spreadsheet that is was split off to?
Hello Chris,
Thank you for your question. Sorry, we don't have the requested functionality yet. I will forward your idea to our dev team for consideration.
Hello Chris,
I'm happy to let you know that the feature has been implemented for when you split by common values! The updated version of the add-on should already be available to you.
How do I split based one one column called category and then on a common value that could either be in Home column or Away column? So any rows that are in NBA category and have Home or Away Column = GSW ... then all of those rows should go into the NBA GSW tab ... and same for NBA LAKERS , etc.
Hello Ed,
Thank you for contacting us. For us to be able to help you better we need to know more details. I have just requested them in a separate email. Thank you.
How can i split a large list of names, email and phone numbers into groups of 15 on different sheets?
Hello Jasmine,
If you would like to split your list into separate sheets containing 15 rows of data each, please try adding an additional column (e.g. Column A) to your source data and filling it in with some values that will be the same for each portion of rows, say, A for A2:A16, B for A17:A31, C for A32:A46 and so on. Then it will be possible to select this additional column (Column A) as a column to split by when using the Split Sheet add-on and get the result of interest.
In case you have any questions, feel free to email us at support@ablebits.com.
Hello Jasmine,
I'm happy to let you know that we've incorporated the feature you asked for in the add-on. The updated version of Split Sheet should be already available to you.
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