ShinyApp that pulls from Google Sheet

Question

I am trying to make a shinyapp that uses location and character data from a Google Sheet to generate a map.

library(shiny)
library(leaflet)
library(tidyverse)
library(googlesheets4)
library(shinyjs)

ORGANIZATION_SHEET_ID <- "###googlesheetsID###"

organization_data <- googlesheets4::read_sheet(ORGANIZATION_SHEET_ID,
    col_types = c(
      Name = "character",
      Needs_Met = "character", 
      Address = "character",
      Org_Structure = "character",
      Contact = "character",
      Submission_Date = "character",
      Lon = "numerical",       
      Lat = "numerical",
      Type = "character",
      Hours = "character"
  )

But it gives me this error:

    Error in `googlesheets4::read_sheet()`:
! `col_types` must have length 1, not length 10.
Run `rlang::last_trace()` to see where the error occurred.

Even though the headers in the Google Sheet match the column names.

M-- · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-11 22:03:35Z

3

From the googlesheets4::read_sheet's documentation:

... col_types gives control of column types, similar to how col_types works in readr and readxl. Note that currently there is only support for the “shortcode” style of column specification and we plan to align better with readr’s capabilities in a future release.

So, you need to use col_types = "ccccccnncc" (assuming you provided the columns in order).

edited Nov 11 at 22:03

answered Nov 11 at 21:42

M--

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Comments

the-mad-statter · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-11 21:48:53Z

From ?googlesheets4::read_sheet argument col_types:

Column types. Either NULL to guess all from the spreadsheet or a string of readr-style shortcodes, with one character or code per column. If exactly one col_type is specified, it is recycled. See Column Specification for more.

This suggests you can do one of three things:

1. NULL to guess

This is the default behavior.

organization_data <- googlesheets4::read_sheet(
  ORGANIZATION_SHEET_ID, 
  col_types = NULL
)

2. Use Shortcodes

See the "Column Specification" section of the help for options.

organization_data <- googlesheets4::read_sheet(
  ORGANIZATION_SHEET_ID, 
  col_types = "ccccccnncc"
)

3. Recycle

Perhaps read everything as character and cast columns to other types later.

organization_data <- googlesheets4::read_sheet(
  ORGANIZATION_SHEET_ID, 
  col_types = "c"
)

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ShinyApp that pulls from Google Sheet

2 Answers 2

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1. NULL to guess

2. Use Shortcodes

3. Recycle

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Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

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1. NULL to guess

2. Use Shortcodes

3. Recycle

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