Getting Data from the Web

The web is full of valuable data, like live stock prices, website tables, weather updates, and even data from other Google Sheets. Instead of copying and pasting this information repeatedly, Google Sheets lets us import data directly into our spreadsheet. This saves time and ensures we’re always working with the latest information. By connecting to live data sources, we can monitor changes in real time, update reports automatically, and minimize manual errors. Whether tracking markets, pulling data from websites, or combining sheets across teams, web-based imports help keep everything current and in one place.

Ready to expand our data-gathering superpowers? Let’s begin by exploring how we can grab structured data straight from web pages, starting with the incredibly useful IMPORTHTML() function.

The IMPORTHTML function

The IMPORTHTML function is perfect for pulling data that’s presented on a webpage as either a table or a list. Many websites display tabular data, like product listings, schedules, or statistics.

Syntax

Here’s the syntax for IMPORTHTML:

• "url": This is the full web address (URL) of the page where our data lives. Remember to enclose it in double quotes.

• "query": This tells Google Sheets what kind of element we’re looking for. It must be either “table” or “list.” Again, use double quotes.

• index: This is a number that tells Google Sheets which table or list on the page we want. If there’s only one table, we’d use 1. If there are multiple, we’ll need to experiment a bit to find the right one (e.g., 1, 2, 3, etc.).

As soon as we press “Enter,” Google Sheets will go to that website, find the first table, and pull all its data directly into our spreadsheet.

Suppose we’re analyzing GDP data from a Wikipedia page that lists countries and their GDP figures in a table. We want to pull this table into Google Sheets to compare, and analyze economic performance.