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When you hit enter on your keyboard, Google Sheets will pull in the product name from the Zumiez product detail page.ĭo the same thing for the price, and you are starting to automatically track Zumiez. =IMPORTEXML( “”)įinally, you will need to use xpath to identify just the element that you want Google Sheets to capture. In this example, the URL goes directly to the first of the target product detail pages.
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Next, add the target URL inside of the parentheses. =IMPORTEXMLįunctions in Google Sheets use parentheses to surround parameters. First type an equals sign and then the function name, IMPORTXML. To apply this function, click into a Google Sheets field. The IMPORTXML function requires two parameters. Although you don’t offer everything that Zumiez carries, you do have the same particular brand of women’s twill jogger pants. The first, and most powerful, of the Google Sheets functions I will discuss is IMPORTXML.Īlthough its name implies that it is for importing extensible markup language (XML) documents, this Sheets feature can be used to ingest several forms of structured data, including XML, hypertext markup language (HTML), comma-separated value (CSV) files, tab-separated value (TSV) files, and RSS feeds.Īs an example, imagine that you compete with a popular retailer like Zumiez. Three of these may even help your business collect competitor and industry data that could lead to better decisions. The service has many powerful functions and features. Google Sheets, the search giant’s cloud-based spreadsheet service, does more than just make your financial statements legible. The tool helps small business owners and marketers gain a competitive advantage. Google Sheets can monitor competitors’ prices, capture news headlines, and devour data from websites, CSV files, and more.
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