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 important information and are much useful for a lot of people. As one of the tags, there is “google-apps-script”. I sometimes discuss 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 is the trend of the 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 the 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 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 4th one. You can see from the 1st and 4rd ones at Ref. 1 - 3.
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. 4
- 2009-08-19: Google Apps Script was released. Ref. 5
- 2011-08-29: Tag of “google-apps-script” was created in Stackoverflow. Ref. 6
- 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 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 the tag of “google-apps-script” in Stackoverflow.
All questions and the related data can be retrieved by a tag using Stack Exchange API. Ref. 7 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 2022-01-01 was statistically analyzed. At Stackoverflow, users can edit the old questions and answers. So please be careful that the data introduced in this report is the data when was retrieved. The data used in this report was retrieved at 2022-01-05 17:37.
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.
Fig. 4. Year vs. Number of questions for one answerer.
Table. 1. New tags added at 2008 - 2021. 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(3340.2),google-sheets(1505.6),google-forms(141.5),google-docs(111.8) |
| 2010 | javascript(845.3),google-sheets-api(93),triggers(77.7),google-sheets-formula(70.5),google-apps(63.8),google-spreadsheet-api(59.1),google-calendar-api(53.3),json(52.9),email(43.2),spreadsheet(41.7) |
| 2011 | html(147.8),google-drive-api(145.6),gmail(83.2),forms(30.6),jdbc(15.7),mysql(14.3),oauth(11.9),google-app-engine(10.5),performance(9.8),google-apps-marketplace(9) |
| 2012 | arrays(103),web-applications(65),urlfetch(38.6),google-workspace(36.2),jquery(34.9),gmail-api(31.8),google-apps-script-addon(27.9),excel(27.9),google-visualization(27.8),date(23.3) |
| 2013 | if-statement(20.8),loops(19.6),google-admin-sdk(15.7),firebase(11.2),filter(10.7),node.js(10),android(10),copy-paste(8.5),replace(7.6),youtube-api(7.2) |
| 2014 | google-cloud-platform(31.4),google-apps-script-api(19.6),webhooks(7.8),ide(7.4),youtube-data-api(6.9),telegram(6.3),duplicates(6.1),google-directory-api(4.1),date-formatting(3.3),modal-dialog(3.3) |
| 2015 | google-slides(38.3),google-slides-api(26.4),google-classroom(13.9),v8(12.3),drive(9.4),server-error(6),materialize(5.2),get(5.1),service-accounts(5),syntax-error(4.2) |
| 2016 | google-form-quiz(9.8),slack-api(7.5),firebase-realtime-database(6.7),slack(6.3),google-signin(3.2),excel-formula(3.2),prompt(3),hangouts-api(2.8),amazon-s3(2.8),promise(2.8) |
| 2017 | gmail-addons(73.3),google-data-studio(31.2),google-app-maker(29.2),google-drive-shared-drive(16.8),telegram-bot(14.2),typescript(8),google-cloud-functions(6.5),http-status-code-403(4.8),reactjs(4.8),stackdriver(4.3) |
| 2018 | google-sheets-macros(84.7),gsuite-addons(22.5),clasp(19),hangouts-chat(10),conditional-formatting(9.3),google-cloud-firestore(8.5),google-people-api(5.8),http-status-code-401(4.3),http-status-code-400(3.7),hubspot(3.7) |
| 2019 | dropdown(9),postman(7.7),chatbot(5.7),google-chat(5.7),bootstrap-4(5.3),mapping(4),figma-api(4),google-sheets-charts(3.5),async-await(3.3),password-protection(3) |
| 2020 | google-workspace-add-ons(30.5),flutter(8.5),cheerio(8),google-apps-script-runtime(8),google-ads-script(5),exception(5),stock(3.5),sourceforge-appscript(3.5),dart(3.5),timeoutexception(3) |
| 2021 | script(27),google-gsuite(10),google-analytics-4(8),esp32(6),nlp(5),bootstrap-5(4),card(3),shopify-api(3),coinmarketcap(3),google-cloud-run(2) |
Summary
- From Fig. 1, it was found that in 2021, the total number of questions was smaller a little than that in 2020, while it is larger than that in 2019. The number of “Closed questions” in 2021 was almost the same with 2020. When the answered questions in 2021 are seen, the ratio of answered questions was reduced a little from that of 2020.
- From Fig. 2, it was found that the growth rate of new Questioners in 2021 was almost the same as that of 2020. On the other hand, it was also found that the growth rate of new answerers in 2021 was decreased from that of 2020. It is considered that this trend indicates that the number of questions for each answerer was more increased.
- From Fig. 3, it was found that the growth rate of new tags and the number of tags used for questions at 2021 were almost constant from those of 2020.
- From Fig. 4, it was found that the number of questions for one answerer was increased proportionally to the square of year. Especially, in 2021, the number of answerers was reduced largely from that of 2020 while the total questions were a bit reduced. By this, it is considered that the burden per one answerer becomes larger.
- From Table. 1, In 2021, the specific new tags are not added.
google-gsuiteandcardcan be seen as the popular new-tags. But in the current stage (January, 7th 2022), the explanation of this tag is not created. In 2021, the card service has been expanded for creating the add-on. This might affect this trend. But it seems that most users use the existing tags.
From the above results, it can say that the current Google Apps Script has still been useful for a lot of users. But, the number of questions for one answerer is increased proportionally to the square of year. So, in order to reduce this burden, an increase of answerers might be required in the future. And, when I saw the trend in 2021, the data in 2021 is reduced a little from 2021 or almost the same with 2021. I’m worried that this result might not be able to deny from the affection of COVID‑19.
References
- Trend of google-apps-script Tag on Stackoverflow 2019
- Trend of google-apps-script Tag on Stackoverflow 2020
- Trend of google-apps-script Tag on Stackoverflow 2021
- 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 2022-01-01
Table. A1. Each total number retrieved from all questions with the tag of “google-apps-script” from 2008-01-01 to 2022-01-01. The data used in this report was retrieved at 2022-01-05 17:37.
| Name | Number |
|---|---|
| Total questions | 43422 |
| Answered questions | 37345 |
| Solved questions | 22826 |
| Questioners | 28258 |
| Answerers | 13924 |
| Kind of Tags | 7496 |