Published: January 16, 2021
Kanshi Tanaike
Introduction
At Stackoverflow, a lot of people post the questions and answers to the questions every day. There are various tags in Stackoverflow. A lot of discussions are performed at each tag. Their discussions bring the important information and are much useful for a lot of people. As one of tags, there is “google-apps-script”. I sometimes discuss at the questions with that tag. When we see the discussions, we can notice that the discussions are changed and progressed by the time, because “Google Apps Script” which is the origin of the tag is updated. This report thinks this change as the trend of tag of “google-apps-script”. This trend includes the number of questions, questioners, answerers and tags adding to the tag of “google-apps-script”. The trend of tag of “google-apps-script” is deeply related to the progression of Google Apps Script and the various applications for Google Apps Script.
In this report, as one of several approaches, the trend of Google Apps Script was investigated by statistically analyzing all questions with the tag of “google-apps-script”. As the result, it was found that by investigating all questions with the tag of “google-apps-script”, the tags added to this main tag strongly affected to the trend of the tag of “google-apps-script”. Also the possibility which can estimate the future trend by investigating the tags adding to the tag of “google-apps-script” was indicated.
This report is 3rd one. You can see the 1st and 2nd ones at Ref. 1 and 2.
Experimental procedure
At first, the history of Stackoverflow and Google Apps Script is confirmed. The following list shows the history of Stackoverflow and Google Apps Script.
- 2008-09-15: Stackoverflow was launched. Ref. 3
- 2009-08-19: Google Apps Script was released. Ref. 4
- 2011-08-29: Tag of “google-apps-script” was created in Stackoverflow. Ref. 5
- How to get help of the official document says “We use the popular programming Q&A website Stack Overflow to field technical questions.”.
From this list, it is found that the history of Stackoverflow is older than that of Google Apps Script, and also the tag of “google-apps-script” at Stackoverflow is introduced by the Google’s official document. These indicate that a lot of information about the history of Google Apps Script can be obtained from all questions with tag of “google-apps-script” in Stackoverflow.
All questions and the related data can be retrieved by a tag using Stack Exchange API. Ref. 6 In this report, “google-apps-script” was used as the base tag. All questions including the tag of “google-apps-script” at Stackoverflow were retrieved by the API, and the retrieved data from 2008-01-01 to 2021-01-01 was statistical analyzed. At Stackoverflow, users can edit the old questions and answers. So please be careful that the data which introduce in this report is the data when was retrieved. The data used in this report was retrieved at 2021-01-16 12:19.
Results and discussions
About the detail of each figure, please check the Ref. 1. From this time, the updated data is shown.
Retrieved data
Fig. 1. Year vs. Total questions, answered, solved and closed questions. These all questions include the tag of “google-apps-script” in the tags.
Fig. 2. Year vs. number of Questioners and Answerers. These all questions include the tag of “google-apps-script” in the tags.
Fig. 3. Year vs. Kind of Tags and Kind of New Tags. Here, “New Tags” means the tags without duplicating for all years. For example, “google-sheets-macros” added in 2018 is not used from 2008 to 2017. It appeared in 2018 for the first time.
Table. 1. New tags added at 2008 - 2020. Top 10 tags with the average value by calculated the trend of the history of tags for each year were retrieved. Number in “()” is the value of Atag.
| Year | New tags (Order of Atag) Ref. 1 |
|---|---|
| 2008 | |
| 2009 | google-apps-script(2947), google-sheets(1256.8), google-forms(128.8), , , , , , , |
| 2010 | javascript(733.5), google-docs(110.1), google-sheets-api(79.3), triggers(70.1), google-apps(66.5), google-spreadsheet-api(59.2), google-calendar-api(49.3), json(46.2), google-sheets-formula(44.6), email(38.7) |
| 2011 | google-drive-api(137.5), html(128.1), gmail(78.8), forms(28), jdbc(15.4), oauth(12.1), mysql(11.9), google-app-engine(11.3), performance(8.4), user-interface(7.9) |
| 2012 | arrays(90), web-applications(55.6), jquery(35.4), urlfetch(32.4), gmail-api(30.2), google-workspace(30.1), google-visualization(28.7), google-apps-script-addon(28.6), excel(24.8), google-apps-script-editor(23.3) |
| 2013 | if-statement(17.4), loops(16.8), google-admin-sdk(15.9), firebase(10.5), android(10), node.js(8.9), filter(8.5), google-chrome-extension(6.9), replace(6.9), sidebar(6.3) |
| 2014 | google-cloud-platform(20.4), webhooks(6.7), youtube-data-api(6.4), telegram(4.2), google-directory-api(4.1), duplicates(4.1), google-email-migration(3), ios(2.9), qr-code(2.8), date-comparison(2.7) |
| 2015 | google-slides(32), google-slides-api(24.5), google-apps-script-api(18.8), google-classroom(13.2), v8(12.3), drive(8.5), server-error(5.8), get(5), materialize(4.8), client-server(4.8) |
| 2016 | google-form-quiz(10), firebase-realtime-database(6.8), slack-api(6.4), slack(5.4), prompt(3.7), google-signin(2.8), hangouts-api(2.8), firebase-authentication(2.8), sendgrid(2.7), signature(2.5) |
| 2017 | gmail-addons(75), google-app-maker(36.3), google-data-studio(29), google-drive-team-drive(17), telegram-bot(11.5), typescript(7.3), google-cloud-functions(5.7), http-status-code-403(5), reactjs(5), stackdriver(4.3) |
| 2018 | google-sheets-macros(87.7), gsuite-addons(25.5), clasp(21.7), hangouts-chat(10), google-cloud-firestore(8.3), conditional-formatting(5.7), http-status-code-401(5), linechart(5), hubspot(5), google-cloud-stackdriver(3.7) |
| 2019 | postman(9), dropdown(8), bootstrap-4(5.5), google-chat(5), chatbot(4.5), figma-api(4), async-await(4), google-sheets-charts(3.5), mapping(3.5), password-protection(3) |
| 2020 | flutter(9), google-apps-script-runtime(9), mysql-workbench(4), timeoutexception(3), google-people-api(3), google-apps-script-project(3), private-key(3), vis.js(3), exception(3), rowdeleting(3) |
Summary
- From Figs. 1, it was found that at 2020, the number of questions was increased when the trend from 2018 to 2019 is compared with that from 2019 to 2020. And, the number of “Closed questions” is also increased. It is considered that this indicates the activity of users.
- From Fig. 2, it was found that the growth rate of new Questioners was a bit increased. On the other hand, it was also found that the growth rate of new answerers was a bit decreased. It is considered that this trend indicates that the number of questions for every answerer is increased.
- From Fig. 3, it was found that the growth rate of new tags was almost constant. On the other hand, it was also found that the number of tags used for questions is linearly increased. It is considered that this trend indicates the increase of the users.
- From Table. 1,
flutterandgoogle-apps-script-runtimecan be seen as the popular new-tags. The new IDE had been released at December 2020. This might affect to this trend. But it seems that most users use the existing tags.
From above results, it can say that the current Google Apps Script has already been useful for a lot of users.
References
- Trend of google-apps-script Tag on Stackoverflow 2019
- Trend of google-apps-script Tag on Stackoverflow 2020
- Stack Overflow was launched at 2008-09-15
- Initial release of Google Apps Script at 2009-08-19
- Tag of “google-apps-script” was created at 2011-08-29
- Stack Exchange API
Appendix
A1. Each total number retrieved from all questions with tag of “google-apps-script” from 2008-01-01 to 2021-01-01
Table. A1. Each total number retrieved from all questions with the tag of “google-apps-script” from 2008-01-01 to 2020-01-01. The data used in this report was retrieved at 2021-01-16 12:19.
| Name | Number |
|---|---|
| Total questions | 35364 |
| Answered questions | 30535 |
| Solved questions | 22826 |
| Questioners | 23191 |
| Answerers | 11916 |
| Kind of Tags | 6372 |