What's the right tool for this job?

Question

Is it possible to nest simple programs within a Google Sheets, similar to how you would with Visual Basic for Applications in Excel? Or alternatively a simple = syntax using regex, if there is a way to do that in Google Sheets?

I want to take a list of multiple names (name1, name2, name3) in a single cell from across multiple identical sheets and transpose them to another sheet within the same spreadsheet, check for duplicates and ignore capitals, etc. Is there a way to do this?

Answer 1

You are asking for an easy answer to a composite problem. To solve this, I would split the job into separate chunks:

1. Split the input cell content into different cells. As it is unclear how this format is, I cannot advice on any specific method. Check out ImportRange function or similar.
2. Transpose them. use =TRANSPOSE(area)
3. Remova duplicates, use =UNIQUE(area)

Check the Google Spreadsheet function list for details.

Nest them: =UNIQUE(TRANSPOSE(A1:C15)).

LOWER cannot be used in this nest as it works with only text input, not array input. Although you can use it for the first input cell.