Split Google Sheets table into multiple sheets

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.
Split Google sheet by the common data in the selected columns.

Before you start

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.

How to use Split Sheet

Start the add-on

Open the sheet you want to split and go to Extensions > Split Sheet > Start:
Run the Split Sheet tool.

Tip. You will also find Split Sheet in Power Tools. Just proceed to the Split group and look for the add-on icon:
Split Sheet icon in Power Tools.

Step 1: Select your table and a way to split it

Select your sheet and a way to split it.

  1. Once the add-on loads, it will automatically select the range with your active table to split.

    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:
    Select the range with your data.

    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.

  2. Here you are to also decide on the way to split the sheet of interest:
    • Go with Common values to group the data based on the common info in the specified columns:
      Split Google sheet by the common data in the selected columns.
    • Or opt for Number of rows if the size of each dataset is more important for your task:
      Split Google sheet by the number of rows.
  3. Toggle the last setting on to insert each split table as a formula. This enables each resulting sheet to update automatically once something changes in your original data set.

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.

Step 2 (A): Select columns to split by

If you chose to split your Google sheet by columns on the previous step, they will appear grouped in the table:
Select columns to split by.

  1. Use the checkbox in the header row to quickly select all columns and group data by records they all contain. The 1st row content will hint on the values in those columns.
  2. You are free to choose any particular columns to split by. If you check more than one column, the add-on will create new sheets based on the common info in all selected columns:
    Split Google sheet by the common data in the selected columns.
  3. Decide where to place the resulting sheets:
    3 ways to get the result.

    • Have a brand new file created with the new sheets (in your Drive next to your source spreadsheet) by picking the option New spreadsheet.
    • Choose Multiple separate spreadsheets to place each table to a completely new file. The add-on will create a new folder next to a file with your original table in Drive, and put all these new spreadsheets there.
    • Or select Current spreadsheet to insert all new sheets to the same file where your source table is.

When you're ready, press Split.

Step 2 (B): Select rows to split by

If you chose to split your Google sheet by N rows on the previous step, here you will need to specify those numbers:
Select rows to split by.

  1. Pick Every N rows to split the Google sheet by the equal number of rows. In other words, your table will be divided by every number of rows you specify:
    Split Google sheet by the number of rows.
  2. Or make use of the other radio button to enter certain groups of rows. Here, you can specify a different number of rows for each sheet, e.g. 1:10, 11-50, 51-1000

    Tip. Skip the number for the last row to process all remaining rows for the last sheet, e.g. 1:70, 70:

  3. Decide where to place the resulting sheets:
    3 ways to get the result.

    • Have a brand new file created with the new sheets (in your Drive next to your source spreadsheet) by picking the option New spreadsheet.
    • Choose Multiple separate spreadsheets to place each table to a completely new file. The add-on will create a new folder next to a file with your original table in Drive, and put all these new spreadsheets there.
    • Or select Current spreadsheet to insert all new sheets to the same file where your source table is.

When the numbers are set, hit Split.

See the result

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.

Tip. If you decide to place the resulting sheets to a new spreadsheet or multiple separate spreadsheets, the add-on will offer you a link to open the new file / folder with files right away.

Split Sheet result message.

How to auto-update split sheets correctly

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:

  1. Whenever IMPORTRANGE is used in the outcome formula, you will see a resulting message telling you how to connect the function to your source file:
    Final message if the formula was enabled.
  2. For your convenience, aside from the sheet with split data, the add-on creates one extra sheet — Connect file to IMPORTRANGE — where you are to grant that access.
  3. The Connect file tab will always contain the following:
    • a reminder to run Split Sheet to enable our custom functions
    • a name of the file that must be accessed by the formula
    • steps on how to connect IMPORTRANGE to that file
    • access status

    Just hover your mouse over the formula error under Access status and press Allow access:
    Connect file to IMPORTRANGE.

  4. As soon as you do that, the Access status will say Connected and the cell will turn green:
    Add-on has been started, IMPORTRANGE is connected.

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.

How to add new sheets for new column values

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.
Split by existing values only.

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:

  1. Open one of the existing split sheets and copy the resulting formula from A1.
    Copy the splitting formula from A1.
  2. Manually create a new sheet and paste the copied formula there.
  3. In the formula, find pairs of {"column","value"} you're splitting by, e.g. {{"Type","Berry"};{"Discount","2"}}
    Find key values you're splitting by.
  4. Change the second value in each pair to your new value, e.g. "Berry" to "Citrus" and "2" to "20", to get {{"Type","Citrus"};{"Discount","20"}}
    Enter new key values to split by.
  5. Confirm changes by hitting Enter.

The formula will update and pull all current and future results for these new values (Citrus and 20).
See new results for newly split values.

How to prepare for new rows to appear in split sheets automatically

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:

  1. When running the tool, on Step 1, expand the range to include future rows, e.g. instead of A1:D42 select or enter A1:D1000

    This will account for empty rows where new data will appear.
    Include future rows to the range.

  2. Complete the Split Sheet process as usual.
  3. The add-on will create some extra split sheets for future rows by the required row count: either blank ones or with headers (if you selected this option on Step 1).
    Blank sheets for future rows.
  4. As new data appears in the source sheet, it will automatically appear in the corresponding split sheets.
    New rows appearing in the extra sheets.

Limitations of standard functions used in the formula

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:

  1. If you place the formula to a new spreadsheet or multiple separate files, our custom functions (COLUMNS_SGS, HEADERS_SGS, SPLIT_RANGE_SGS) won't start working until you run Split Sheet once. Since those files are newly created, this way you enable our custom function there. Do that before granting the IMPORTRANGE access and you won't have to reload the spreadsheet as well.
  2. Formulas won't work without our add-on. Whether you use the tool to create formulas or duplicate yourself shared files with formulas, you should have the add-on installed. Otherwise, there's just nothing to call for our custom functions with.
  3. The key records you're splitting by must not be blanks. Otherwise, too many empty rows will appear in the result.

    Note. Make sure there are no completely empty rows within the table — this will also affect the result.

  4. If there are mixed data types (e.g. numbers and text) within a column, the QUERY function will return only the majority data type leaving the rest as empty cells.
  5. Due to the way Google Sheets processes formulas, the number of columns in the outcome table is always fixed. It means that new columns added to your source tables (both within & at the end) won't appear in the result — Google Sheets will not adjust the ranges.
  6. Google Sheets functions cannot process and take any objects (e.g. images, charts, conditional formatting, etc.) but values to a resulting table.

How to work with scenarios

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.

What is a scenario?

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.

Save the 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:
Split Sheet resulting message with the option to save the settings just used into a scenario.
You will see a short summary of all options you have used just now — this is your scenario preview:
Preview the settings to save into a reusable scenario.

  1. Give your scenario a speaking name so you always know what it does by seeing it in the menu.
  2. Select the sheet that you want to split with this scenario:
    • To process a sheet where your mouse cursor stands when you run the scenario, choose [Selected sheet].
    • Or pick any particular sheet to always handle it no matter where you stand in the file when you start the scenario.
  3. Set the range that you want to process using the scenario:
    • Choose [Selected range] to split all selected cells.
    • Pick [All data] to split the entire used range (all cells on the active sheet).
    • Or specify a particular range to process it each time.
  4. Look through the options you're about to save to make sure everything is correct.

    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.

Run your scenario

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.

Run Split Sheet scenario.
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:
Result for the scenario from Split Sheet.

Edit or delete scenarios

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:
selected scenario in Split Sheet.
You will see the whole scenario outline again:
Review and edit scenario outline.
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.

Share scenarios

You can easily export one or more scenarios and share them with your teammates or sync across your different Google accounts.

Share a single scenario

To share a single scenario, go to Extensions > Split Sheet > Scenarios > desired scenario > Export & share:
Share individual scenarios from Split Sheet.
The add-on will prompt you to save the scenario on your computer:
Save Split Sheet scenario to 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.

Share all scenarios

To export all the scenarios you’ve created, navigate to Extensions > Split Sheet > Scenarios, then select Export & share all scenarios:
Export and share all Split Sheet scenarios.
The add-on will notify you that all scenarios will be saved to your computer:
Download all scenarios 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.

Import scenarios

To bring in scenarios shared with you, go to Split Sheet > Scenarios > Import scenarios:
Import shared scenarios to Split Sheet.
The add-on will ask you to choose the file with the saved scenarios from your computer. Click Browse:
Pick the file with scenarios to import to Split Sheet.
After importing, you'll see a confirmation message with the number of scenarios successfully added:
1 scenario has been imported successfully.

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:
Find the imported scenario in the Split Sheet menu.

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.

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, 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.

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.

Da'Quan Love says:
August 17, 2022 at 6:09 pm

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?

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.

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.

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