Case study
Market data collector and sheet writer
Collects market data on a schedule and writes it straight into Google Sheets, so the analysis lives in the tool the client already used rather than in a file to import.
Overview
Market data, collected on a schedule, written directly into a Google Sheet. The delivery target is the point: the people using it already worked in spreadsheets, so the data arrives where the work happens instead of as a file somebody has to remember to import.
Complexities tackled
Writing into a live sheet is not writing a file. A sheet someone else has open has formulas, formatting and a cursor in it. Appending has to preserve what is there, which means writing ranges deliberately rather than replacing content, and batching updates rather than making a call per row.
Scheduled collection needs to be idempotent. A run that fires twice, or reruns after a failure, must not produce duplicate rows. Keying on the period being collected rather than on append order is what makes a rerun safe.
Stack
Python for collection, the Google Sheets API for delivery, run on a schedule.
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