Published: January 3, 2023
Kanshi Tanaike
Introduction
At Stackoverflow, a lot of people post 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 over 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 added 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 “google-apps-script”, the tags added to this main tag strongly affected the trend of the tag “google-apps-script”. Also, the possibility which can estimate the future trend by investigating the tags added to the tag of “google-apps-script” was indicated.
This report is 4th one. You can see from the 1st and 5th ones at Ref. 1 - 4.
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. 5
- 2009-08-19: Google Apps Script was released. Ref. 6
- 2011-08-29: Tag of “google-apps-script” was created in Stackoverflow. Ref. 7
- 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 “google-apps-script” in 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 related data can be retrieved by a tag using Stack Exchange API. Ref. 8 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 2023-01-01 was statistically analyzed. At Stackoverflow, users can edit old questions and answers. So please be careful that the data introduced in this report is the data that was retrieved. The data used in this report was retrieved on 2023-01-01 at 10:07.
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 “google-apps-script” in the tags.
Fig. 2. Year vs. a number of Questioners and Answerers. These all questions include the tag “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.
Fig. 5. Number of questions for each month.
Table. 1. New tags added from 2008 - 2022. The top 10 tags with the average value by calculating 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(3539.8),google-sheets(1676.6),google-forms(146.7),google-docs(117.2) |
| 2010 | javascript(905.8),google-sheets-api(98.1),triggers(92.9),google-sheets-formula(88),google-apps(60),google-spreadsheet-api(58.2),google-calendar-api(57.8),json(56.5),spreadsheet(45.2),email(44.8) |
| 2011 | html(155),google-drive-api(154.7),gmail(85.9),web-applications(82.6),forms(32.5),jdbc(15.3),mysql(14.1),oauth(11.3),google-apps-marketplace(10.1),performance(9.8) |
| 2012 | arrays(110.7),urlfetch(46.1),google-workspace(37.9),jquery(33.2),gmail-api(32.9),excel(27.9),google-apps-script-addon(27.7),google-visualization(27.3),date(24.7),for-loop(24.5) |
| 2013 | if-statement(22.3),loops(21.4),google-admin-sdk(15.8),filter(11.3),firebase(11),node.js(10.1),copy-paste(9.6),android(8.8),replace(7.9),youtube-api(7.6) |
| 2014 | google-cloud-platform(35.7),google-apps-script-api(20.3),webhooks(7.9),youtube-data-api(7.7),telegram(5.9),duplicates(5.8),service-accounts(5.1),modal-dialog(3.9),google-directory-api(3.8),macro-recorder(3.3) |
| 2015 | google-slides(39.9),google-slides-api(25.5),google-classroom(13.1),v8(10.4),drive(8.5),get(5.3),materialize(4.8),client-server(4.7),http-status-code-403(4.6),syntax-error(4.1) |
| 2016 | conditional-formatting(9.8),google-form-quiz(9.8),slack-api(7.1),slack(6.6),firebase-realtime-database(6),excel-formula(3.9),google-signin(3.4),prompt(3.3),promise(2.9),hangouts-api(2.8) |
| 2017 | gmail-addons(72.5),google-app-maker(35.8),google-data-studio(20.5),google-drive-shared-drive(18.7),telegram-bot(12.8),typescript(8.8),google-cloud-functions(5.4),reactjs(5.3),stackdriver(4.3),google-apis-explorer(4.2) |
| 2018 | google-sheets-macros(84),google-workspace-add-ons(28.8),gsuite-addons(22.5),clasp(17.4),hangouts-chat(8.3),google-cloud-firestore(7.4),google-people-api(5.4),http-status-code-400(4.8),http-status-code-401(4.2),linechart(3.5) |
| 2019 | dropdown(10),google-chat(6.3),postman(6.3),bootstrap-4(4.8),chatbot(4.3),mapping(4),figma-api(4),google-sheets-charts(3.5),graphql(3.3),password-protection(3) |
| 2020 | cheerio(9),google-apps-script-runtime(8),exception(7),flutter(6.7),google-ads-script(5.7),stock(3),google-apps-script-project(3),vis.js(3),rowdeleting(3),zoom-sdk(3) |
| 2021 | google-analytics-4(6.5),nlp(5),google-gsuite(4.5),coinmarketcap(4),bootstrap-5(4),whatsapp(3),lock-service(3),esp32(3),sourceforge-appscript(3),instagram-graph-api(2.5) |
| 2022 | google-chat-api(5),html-lists(4),http-status-code-422(2),global-scope(2),amazon-ses(2),import-csv(2),coding-efficiency(2),accessibility(2),imagedownload(2),importdata(2) |
Summary
-
From Fig. 1, it was found that in 2022, the total number of questions was smaller a little than that in 2021. But, the differential value of 2021-2022 was smaller than that of 2020-2021. The number of “Closed questions” in 2022 was almost twice that in 2021. The ratio of the answered question to the total number of questions shows a reduction trend. And also, the ratio of the solved questions for the total questions in 2022 is lower than that of 2021.
-
From Fig. 2, it was found that the increase rate of questioners in 2021-2022 was smaller than that of answerers in 2021-2022. It is considered that this trend indicates that the number of questions for each answerer was increased as shown in Fig. 4.
-
From Fig. 3, it was found that the growth rate of new tags and the number of tags used for questions in 2022 were almost constant from those of 2021.
-
From Fig. 4, it was found that the number of questions for one answerer was increased proportionally to the square of the year. Especially, in 2022, the number of answerers was reduced largely from that of 2021 while the total questions were a bit reduced. By this, it is considered that the burden per one answerer becomes larger.
-
In Fig. 5, as a new attempt, it was investigated the number of questions for each month using all data. From Fig. 5, it was found that the number of posted questions trends increased in June - August. And also, it was found that the number of posted questions trends to reduce in January and December.
-
From Table. 1, In 2022, the specific new tag
google-chat-apiwas added.
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 the year. Furthermore, the ratio of the solved questions for the total questions in 2022 is lower than that of 2021. So, in order to improve these issues, it is considered that growing answerers will be one of the important factors for the selectivity of Google Apps Script by users.
And, when I saw the trend in 2022, the reduction rate in 2022 is smaller than that in 2021. I guess that this result might be related to the reduction of affection of COVID‑19.
References
Appendix
A1. Each total number retrieved from all questions with the tag of “google-apps-script” from 2008-01-01 to 2023-01-01
Table. A1. Each total number retrieved from all questions with the tag of “google-apps-script” from 2008-01-01 to 2023-01-01. The data used in this report was retrieved at 2023-01-01 10:07.
| Name | Number |
|---|---|
| Total questions | 49557 |
| Answered questions | 42696 |
| Solved questions | 32487 |
| Questioners | 32157 |
| Answerers | 15479 |
| Kind of Tags | 8461 |