How do I delete individual responses in FormApp

Question

Shouldn't FormResponse have a remove or delete response method? https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/forms/form-response

Is it there and I'm just missing it in the docs?

I'm talking about Responses here not Items.

Mogsdad Mogsdad · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-03T03:56:45

Nope, not there. And no external API to fill the gap.

So here's a crazy idea.

You could write a script that gets all the responses, calls deleteAllResponses(), then writes back all but the one(s) you want deleted. You'd then have summary info that reflects the responses you care about, but you'd have lost the submission dates (...which you could add as non-form data in a spreadsheet), and submitter UserID (in Apps Domains only, and again you could retain it outside the form).

Whether or not the compromises are acceptable depend on what your intended use of the form data is.

Code

This is a forms-contained script with a simple menu & UI, which will delete indicated responses. The content of deleted responses are logged.

/**
 * Adds a custom menu to the active form, containing a single menu item for
 * invoking deleteResponsesUI() specified below.
 */
function onOpen() {
  FormApp.getUi()
      .createMenu('My Menu')
      .addItem('Delete response(s)', 'deleteResponsesUI')
      .addToUi();
}

/**
 * UI for Forms function, deleteResponses().
 */
function deleteResponsesUI() {
  var ui = FormApp.getUi();
  var response = ui.prompt("Delete Response(s)",
                           "List of resonse #s to delete, separated by commas",
                           ui.ButtonSet.OK_CANCEL);
  if (response.getSelectedButton() == ui.Button.OK) {
    var deleteCSV = response.getResponseText();
    var numDeleted = deleteResponses(deleteCSV.split(/ *, */));
    ui.alert("Deleted "+numDeleted+" responses.", ui.ButtonSet.OK);
  }
}

/**
 * Deletes the indicated response(s) from the form.
 * CAVEAT: Timestamps for all remaining responses will be changed.
 * Deleted responses are logged, but cannot be recovered.
 *
 * @parameter {Number or Number[]}   Reponse(s) to be deleted, 0-indexed.
 *
 * @returns {Number}                 Number of responses that were deleted.
 */
function deleteResponses(trash) {
  if (!trash) throw new Error( "Missing parameter(s)" );
  Logger.log(JSON.stringify(trash))
  if (!Array.isArray(trash)) trash = [trash];    // If we didn't get an array, fix it

  var form = FormApp.getActiveForm();
  var responses = form.getResponses();

  // Really feels like we should ask "ARE YOU REALLY, REALLY SURE?"
  form.deleteAllResponses();

  var numDeleted = 0;
  for (var i = 0; i < responses.length; i++) {
    if ( trash.indexOf(i.toString()) !== -1 ) {
      // This response to be deleted
      Logger.log( "Deleted response: " + JSON.stringify(itemizeResponse(responses[i] )) )
      numDeleted++
    }
    else {
      // This response to be kept
      var newResponse = form.createResponse();
      var itemResponses = responses[i].getItemResponses();
      for (var j = 0; j < itemResponses.length; j++) {
        newResponse.withItemResponse(itemResponses[j]);
      }
      newResponse.submit();
    }
  }
  return numDeleted
}

/**
 * Returns item responses as a javascript object (name/value pairs).
 *
 * @param {Response}     Form Response object
 *
 * @returns              Simple object with all item responses + timestamp
 */
function itemizeResponse(response) {
  if (!response) throw new Error( "Missing parameter(s)" );

  var itemResponses = response.getItemResponses();
  var itemizedResponse = {"Timestamp":response.getTimestamp()};

  for (var j = 0; j < itemResponses.length; j++) {
    itemizedResponse[itemResponses[j].getItem().getTitle()] = itemResponses[j].getResponse();
  }
  return itemizedResponse;
}

How do I delete individual responses in FormApp

4 Answers

Code