title: Google Sheets API "update" method Http Error 400
body: <p>I am trying to make a python script that reads and writes to a google spreadsheet. I've basically copied the python quickstart script at <a href="https://developers.google.com/sheets/quickstart/python" rel="noreferrer">https://developers.google.com/sheets/quickstart/python</a> and modified it using the reference at <a href="https://developers.google.com/resources/api-libraries/documentation/sheets/v4/python/latest/" rel="noreferrer">https://developers.google.com/resources/api-libraries/documentation/sheets/v4/python/latest/</a>. </p>
  
  <p>Everything works fine with the "get" method shown in the quickstart script. I can read the sheet with no errors. To use "update" instead of "get" (write to the sheet instead of read it), I removed the <code>.readonly</code> portion of the scope url. I also replaced the <code>get()</code> method with <code>update()</code> and included <code>body</code> as an argument in the <code>update()</code> method with a json object containing the values encoded with <code>json.dumps</code>. This was all according to the second reference above.</p>
  
  <p>I get an HttpError 400 every time for "invalid data".</p>
  
  <p>Code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import httplib2
  import os
  import json
  
  from apiclient import discovery
  import oauth2client
  from oauth2client import client
  from oauth2client import tools
  
  try:
      import argparse
      flags = argparse.ArgumentParser(parents=[tools.argparser]).parse_args()
  except ImportError:
      flags = None
  
  # If modifying these scopes, delete your previously saved credentials
  # at ~/.credentials/sheets.googleapis.com-python-quickstart.json
  SCOPES = 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets'
  CLIENT_SECRET_FILE = 'client_secret.json'
  APPLICATION_NAME = 'Google Sheets API Python Quickstart'
  
  
  def get_credentials():
      """Gets valid user credentials from storage.
  
      If nothing has been stored, or if the stored credentials are invalid,
      the OAuth2 flow is completed to obtain the new credentials.
  
      Returns:
          Credentials, the obtained credential.
      """
      home_dir = os.path.expanduser('~')
      credential_dir = os.path.join(home_dir, '.credentials')
      if not os.path.exists(credential_dir):
          os.makedirs(credential_dir)
      credential_path = os.path.join(credential_dir,
                                     'sheets.googleapis.com-python-quickstart.json')
  
      store = oauth2client.file.Storage(credential_path)
      credentials = store.get()
      if not credentials or credentials.invalid:
          flow = client.flow_from_clientsecrets(CLIENT_SECRET_FILE, SCOPES)
          flow.user_agent = APPLICATION_NAME
          if flags:
              credentials = tools.run_flow(flow, store, flags)
          else: # Needed only for compatibility with Python 2.6
              credentials = tools.run(flow, store)
          print('Storing credentials to ' + credential_path)
      return credentials
  
  def main():
      """Shows basic usage of the Sheets API.
  
      Creates a Sheets API service object and prints the names and majors of
      students in a sample spreadsheet:
      https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BxiMVs0XRA5nFMdKvBdBZjgmUUqptlbs74OgvE2upms/edit
      """
      credentials = get_credentials()
      http = credentials.authorize(httplib2.Http())
      discoveryUrl = ('https://sheets.googleapis.com/$discovery/rest?'
                      'version=v4')
      service = discovery.build('sheets', 'v4', http=http,
                                discoveryServiceUrl=discoveryUrl)
  
      spreadsheetId = '1Wbo5ilhw68IMUTSvnj_2yyRmWJ87NP-lHdJdaPBmTGA'
      rangeName = 'Class Data!A2:E'
      body = json.dumps({'values': [[0,0,0,0,0]]})
      result = service.spreadsheets().values().update(
          spreadsheetId=spreadsheetId, range=rangeName, body=body).execute()
  
  
  if __name__ == '__main__':
      main()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Console errors:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/Users/user/Dropbox/python/jobs/test.py", line 73, in &lt;module&gt;
      main()
    File "/Users/user/Dropbox/python/jobs/test.py", line 69, in main
      spreadsheetId=spreadsheetId, range=rangeName, body=body).execute()
    File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site-packages/oauth2client/util.py", line 135, in positional_wrapper
      return wrapped(*args, **kwargs)
    File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site-packages/googleapiclient/http.py", line 832, in execute
      raise HttpError(resp, content, uri=self.uri)
  googleapiclient.errors.HttpError: &lt;HttpError 400 when requesting https://sheets.googleapis.com/v4/spreadsheets/1Wbo5ilhw68IMUTSvnj_2yyRmWJ87NP-lHdJdaPBmTGA/values/Class%20Data%21A2%3AE?alt=json returned "Invalid value at 'data' (type.googleapis.com/google.apps.sheets.v4.ValueRange), "{"values": [[0, 0, 0, 0, 0]]}""&gt;
  </code></pre>