Get started with Connected Sheets for Data Studio

Requirements: To use Connected Sheets for Data Studio, you must know the URL of the Data Studio instance you want to connect to. You can find out what Data Studio instances are eligible and how to enable Connected Sheets in Data Studio here: Using Connected Sheets for Data Studio.

In Sheets, connect to your Data Studio-modeled data to analyze data from a single source of truth and even integrate other data sources for deeper analysis.

With Connected Sheets for Data Studio, you can analyze data from more than 60 databases that can be live-connected to Data Studio. You can also combine your Data Studio data with Sheets data and you can analyze your data using familiar Sheets features like pivot tables.

Learn more about Data Studio.

Connect to a Look or an Explore

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
2. At the top, click Data Data connectors Connect to Data Studio.
3. Enter your Data Studio instance URL or instance ID.
   • To access Data Studio, you must have a Data Studio instance. If you don’t have a Data Studio instance, contact the Data Studio sales team to request a demo.
   • If you’re prompted to allow access to your Data Studio data, you'll be asked to link your account, if you agree, click Agree and continue to link your Google and Data Studio accounts and allow Google to access your Data Studio data on your behalf.
4. Click Connect to Look or Connect to Explore.
   • If you select ”Connect to Look:”
     1. Select a Look.
     2. Click Connect.
     3. In the “Connect to a Look” window, under “Insert to,” select New sheet or Existing sheet.
     4. Click Create.
     5. On the left of the spreadsheet, click Apply.
        • In the “Look editor” side panel, you’ll find the Look title and Look URL.
     6. To refresh the data in the table:
        • At the bottom right, in the “Look editor“ side panel, click Refresh.
        • At the bottom left of the table, click Refresh.
   • If you select ”Connect to Explore:”
     1. Select a model from the list.
     2. Click Connect.

Check how to connect to a Look or an Explore

Connect to a Data Studio

Connect to an Explore

Learn how to use Connected Sheets for Data Studio

After you load the Explore from the Data Studio instance, you can:

• Run live queries based on modeled data and standardized metrics
• Share and collaborate across the org with partners, analysts, or other stakeholders on up-to-date data
• Create new analysis in Google Sheets with built-in Google Sheets functions

Learn more about Data Studio

To better understand Data Studio terminology, please take a look at the Data Studio documentation:

• Learn more about “model.”
• Learn more about “Explore.”
• Learn more about “views.”
• Learn more about “measures.”
• Learn how to add dimensions for more details.
• Learn how to pivot dimensions.
• Learn how to filter data.
• Learn how to save and edit Looks.

Create a pivot table

At the top left of the spreadsheet that is connected to Data Studio data, you can easily create a pivot table to analyze large data sets and find relationships between data points.

Learn how to create and use pivot tables.

1. To make edits on the pivot table, click Edit .
2. To add data from dimensions and measures, select an option:
   • Click Add.
   • From the right-hand side of the pivot table editor, you can drag and drop:
     • Dimensions as rows, columns, values or filters
     • Measures as values or filters
     • Filter-only fields and parameters as filters

3. To apply changes to the pivot table, click Apply.

In the screenshot: Rows = Distribution Center - Name Columns = Inventory Items - Created Date Values = Orders - Order Count Filters = Inventory Items - Created Date between 2023-12-01 and 2023-12-05

Tips:

• Data Studio Explores may contain one or more always_filters and/or conditionally_filters. These filters are defined in Data Studio and also apply to Connected Sheets for Data Studio pivot tables. As shown below, you can go to the "Data Studio filters" section of the Pivot table editor and see fields with defined filters.
• Pivot tables can currently support up to 100K results.

Add a filter to a pivot table

1. Click Edit to edit the pivot table.
2. Under “Filters,” click Add.

• You can add Data Studio filter-only fields and parameters as filters in pivot tables. Learn more about Using Data Studio parameters and filter-only fields.

Add a filter by value

You can filter dimensions or measures by values.

1. Select a dimension or measure.
2. Next to “Showing all items," click the Down arrow .
3. Under “Filter by value,” click Add filter.

Tip: Data Studio fetches the top 500 values, which may take a few seconds.

6. Select values to filter.
7. Click OK.
8. At the bottom left of the sheet, click Apply.

Tip: To remove current filters, in the right side panel, under “Filters,” click Remove .

Add a filter expression

You can use filter expressions to filter with common expressions such as "last day,” "next week,” or "NOT 5”.

1. Select a dimension or measure.
2. Under “Filter by condition,” select “Filter expression.”
3. Input your expressions.
4. Click OK.
5. At the bottom left of the sheet, click Apply.

Refresh your data

Data Studio data doesn't automatically sync with Connected Sheets. To sync the data, you can refresh a specific item, everything within a data source, or everything within all data sources. Once you’ve connected to a data source, you can refresh Pivot Tables associated with that data.

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets that is connected to Data Studio data.
2. At the bottom, next to "Refresh" click More Refresh options.
3. To the right, under "Refresh options," click the items you want to refresh. To refresh all of the data, at the bottom right, click Refresh all.

Schedule a refresh

Important: Scheduled refreshes of Connected Sheets don't propagate any end-user context such as IP address or device information.

A scheduled refresh will update all objects and data sources at a specific, preset time.
Important:

A scheduled refresh will run as the user that set up the schedule. If another user adds or updates an existing datasource, the schedule will automatically pause. To unpause, contact the schedule owner or take over the refresh.

Objects in the preview or failed state will not refresh with a scheduled refresh.

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets that is connected to Data Studio data.
2. At the bottom, next to "Refresh" click More Refresh options.
3. At the bottom of the sidebar to the right, under “Scheduled refresh,” click Setup now.
4. Choose your refresh frequency.
5. Click Save.

Take over a scheduled refresh

To run a scheduled refresh as yourself instead of the original owner, you can take over a refresh.

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets that is connected to Data Studio data.
2. At the bottom, next to "Refresh" click More Refresh options.
3. At the bottom of the sidebar to the right, under “Scheduled refresh,” click Edit.
4. Choose your refresh frequency.
5. Click Save to transfer the scheduled refresh ownership to you.

View query details and cancel a query

Editors of a spreadsheet and users with the required Data Studio permissions can cancel a query that is running.

To view query details for a pivot table:

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets that is connected to Data Studio data.
2. Create a pivot table.
3. At the bottom left of the pivot table, click Apply to apply any changes.
4. At the bottom left of the pivot table, hover over the refresh icon , next to "Refresh", click Open in Data Studio to open the pivot table query in Data Studio

5. [Optional] Click More

   1. And click See your recent Data Studio queries to see a list of recently run queries in Data Studio
   2. And click See query in Data Studio System Activity to see the details of this execution of the query in System Activity.

      1. Note: You will need Data Studio's see_system_activity permission to see the data

To cancel a query

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets that is connected to Data Studio data.
2. When a query is running or pending: At the bottom, next to “Running query” or “Query pending”, click Cancel next to the calculated running time.
3. Click Confirm.

You can also cancel a query from Refresh options sidebar:

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets that is connected to Data Studio data.

2. At the bottom, hover over the refresh icon , next to "Refresh" click More Refresh options.
3. To cancel running refresh individually, next to each item, click Cancel.
4. Click Confirm.

Note:

• If you do not have the required Data Studio permission, the action to cancel a query cannot be completed.
• A query that failed due to a Sheets timeout may keep running in the database.

Explore connection settings

If you are currently connected to an Explore and you want to update the connection, you can use Connection settings.

1. At the top right, click Connection settings.
2. To connect, click a new Explore.
3. Click Connect.

Admin Audit Logs

Important: When you access Data Studio data in Connected Sheets, entries are recorded in Data Studio's Audit Logs. The logs show who accessed the data and when. Only people with proper authorization can access log records.

You can find the spreadsheet ID in the audit log. Every spreadsheet has a unique spreadsheet ID value containing letters, numbers, hyphens, or underscores. You can also find the spreadsheet ID in a Google Sheets URL.

Learn more about Monitoring Connected Sheets.