Find value in spreadsheet using google script - search

Question

Situation:
1 spreadsheet
multiple sheets
1 cell selected (may vary)
What I'd like to do is to find and set focus to the next cell in any sheet that matches the selected cell (case insensitive) upon clicking a button-like image in the spreadsheet. Sort of like a custom index MS Word can create for you.
My approach is:
- set value of the selected cell as the variable (succeeded)
- find the first cell that matches that variable (not the selected cell) (no success)
- set value of found cell as variable2 (no success)
- set the focus of spreadsheet to variable2 (no success)
function FindSetFocus()
{
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var sheet = ss.getActiveSheet();
var activecell = sheet.getActiveCell();
var valueactivecell = activecell.getValue();
//here comes the code :)
}
I have found this snippet in the following topic, but I'm having a little trouble setting the input and doing something with the output: How do I search Google Spreadsheets?
I think I can replace 'value' with 'valueactivecell', but I don't know how to set the range to search through all sheets in the spreadsheet. Also, I'd like the output to be something I can set focus to using something like 'ss.setActiveSheet(sheet).setActiveSelection("D5");'
/**
* Finds a value within a given range.
* #param value The value to find.
* #param range The range to search in.
* #return A range pointing to the first cell containing the value,
* or null if not found.
*/
function find(value, range) {
var data = range.getValues();
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
for (var j = 0; j < data[i].length; j++) {
if (data[i][j] == value) {
return range.getCell(i + 1, j + 1);
}
}
}
return null;
}
also found this but no luck on getting it to work on the selected cell and setting focus: How do I search for and find the coordinates of a row in Google Spreadsheets best answer, first code.
Please bear in mind that I'm not a pro coder :) If code samples are provided, please comment inline hehe.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Edit 24/10: Used the code from the answer below and edited it a bit. Now able to look through multiple sheets in a spreadsheet to find the value. The only problem with this bit is: My cell is highlighted yellow, but the cell with the value found isn't selected. See code below for hopping through sheets. I can't get my head around this :)
function SearchAndFind() {
//determine value of selected cell
var sh = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var ss = sh.getActiveSheet();
var cell = ss.getActiveCell();
var value = cell.getValue();
//create array with sheets in active spreadsheet
var sheets = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheets();
//loop through sheets to look for value
for (var i in sheets) {
//Set active cell to A1 on each sheet to start looking from there
SpreadsheetApp.setActiveSheet(sheets[i])
var sheet = sh.getActiveSheet();
var range = sheet.getRange("A1");
sheet.setActiveRange(range);
//set variables to loop through data on each sheet
var activeR = cell.getRow()-1;
var activeC = cell.getColumn()-1;
var data = sheets[i].getDataRange().getValues()
var step = 0
//loop through data on the sheet
for(var r=activeR;r<data.length;++r){
for(var c=activeC;c<data[0].length;++c){
step++
Logger.log(step+' -- '+value+' = '+data[r][c]);
if(data[r][c]==''||step==1){ continue };
if(value.toString().toLowerCase()==data[r][c].toString().toLowerCase()){
sheet.getRange(r+1,c+1).activate().setBackground('#ffff55');
return;
}
}
}
}
}

Answer 1

Here is an example of such a function, I inserted a drawing in my spreadsheet representing a button which I assigned the script so it's easy to call.
I added a feature to set a light yellow background on the resulting selected cell so it's easier to see the selected cell but this is optional.
Code
function findAndSelect(){
var sh = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var ss = sh.getActiveSheet();
var cell = ss.getActiveCell();
cell.setBackground('#ffff55');// replace by cell.setBackground(null); to reset the color when "leaving" the cell
var activeR = cell.getRow()-1;
var activeC = cell.getColumn()-1;
var value = cell.getValue();
var data = ss.getDataRange().getValues();
var step = 0
for(var r=activeR;r<data.length;++r){
for(var c=activeC;c<data[0].length;++c){
step++
Logger.log(step+' -- '+value+' = '+data[r][c]);
if(data[r][c]==''||step==1){ continue };
if(value.toString().toLowerCase()==data[r][c].toString().toLowerCase()){
ss.getRange(r+1,c+1).activate().setBackground('#ffff55');
return;
}
}
}
}
Caveat
This code only searches 'downwards', i.e. any occurrence in a row that would precede the selected cell is ignored, same for columns...
If that's an issue for you then the code should be modified to start iterating from 0. But in this case if one need to ignore the initial starting cell then you should also memorize its coordinates and skip this value in iteration.