Return Data to sheet -> List of Values not copyable?

[N-Demir]

Hi! Question/feature. I used some python code to generate a new column in my data by having the last line in the code be a list of strings. However, when I go to do something with this new column like copy one of the values I'm not able to. The outputted data is sort of like a ghost where it displays but if i double click there is nothing there. And copying doesn't grab anything.

Am I missing something on how to work with the data? It seems like outputting a list of values back to the sheet is for viewing only, and there's no way to actually then use it.

Strangely I can reference the values by doing cell(0, -124), for example:

but without relative cell positioning syntax or a function to get the position of the current cell (unless I'm missing it), I can't use this hack to populate a new column with copyable values.

[davidkircos]

When you output data from a cell, it "expands" onto the grid, only if there is the available space to do so. If there is user data or another code cell in the way you get a "SPILL" error (we could document this better).

Copy/paste should copy the values and I believe it is an oversight that it currently does not. It's not a trivial solution, however. If you copy the source cell, we want the code to be copied, but if you don't copy the source cell we just want to copy the values.

This is a little confusing.

[N-Demir]

I can definitely see how it would be tricky... I'm not familiar how other spreadsheets have solved it and whether they've found the right solution or it still has issues (iirc gsheets frustrated me here for some reason before, could be making that up though)

I differ to your judgements on whether this makes any sense, but conceptually is it easier to think that there are 2 levels of copying: values and formulas/code?

Sort of like programmers are familiar with shallow and deep copies. The basic copy is just a shallow copy i.e. it only copies values, and a "deeper" copy copies the underlying code.

Shallow copy = cmd + c
Deep copy = cmd + shift + c (or, and this is maybe unusual from an HCI perspective, could also be cmd + c hit twice in quick succession

I realize this probably ties into quadratic fundamentals, like what gets copied when your click and drag the corner of a cell and I'm sure other things I'm not aware of

[N-Demir]

fwiw, if someone else finds this, I was able to find a workaround:

copy the "display only" outputted cells from a formula and go to the {} in the menu and click "export -> download selection as csv"

this downloads the list of values and you can then drag and drop it into the spreadsheet somewhere else

[davidfig]

This is now fixed. You can copy parts of a code cell output and paste them as values. You can also copy the entire output and use the paste values only (found via the command palette, the floating menu in the "..." area, or with Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + V).