How to export a TSV of a sheet’s formulas in Google Sheets?

When you export a Google spreadsheet with hyperlinks or custom formulas into TSV files, the tsv files only keep the values of cells instead of the original formulas, a.k.a., information is lost.

With the following Script, you will get the original formulas saved in the TSV files together with other text.

/*
 * script to export data in all sheets in the current spreadsheet as individual tsv files
 * files will be named according to the name of the sheet
 * author: Michael Derazon
 * contributor: xFanatical
*/

function onOpen() {
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var tsvMenuEntries = [{name: "export as TSV files", functionName:   "saveAstsv"}];
  ss.addMenu("tsv", tsvMenuEntries);
};

function saveAstsv() {
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var sheets = ss.getSheets();
  // create a folder from the name of the spreadsheet
  var folder = DriveApp.createFolder(ss.getName().toLowerCase().replace(/   /g,'_') + '_tsv_' + new Date().getTime());
  for (var i = 0 ; i < sheets.length ; i++) {
    var sheet = sheets[i];
    // append ".tsv" extension to the sheet name
    fileName = sheet.getName() + ".tsv";
    // convert all available sheet data to tsv format
    var tsvFile = convertRangeTotsvFile_(fileName, sheet);
    // create a file in the Docs List with the given name and the tsv data
    folder.createFile(fileName, tsvFile);
  }
  Browser.msgBox('Files are waiting in a folder named ' + folder.getName());
}

function convertRangeTotsvFile_(tsvFileName, sheet) {
  // get available data range in the spreadsheet
  var activeRange = sheet.getDataRange();
  try {
    var data = activeRange.getValues();
    var formula = activeRange.getFormulas();
    var tsvFile = undefined;

    // loop through the data in the range and build a string with the tsv  data
    if (data.length > 1) {
      var tsv = "";
      for (var row = 0; row < data.length; row++) {
        for (var col = 0; col < data[row].length; col++) {
          if (formula[row][col] !== '') {
            data[row][col] = formula[row][col]
          }
          if (data[row][col].toString().indexOf("\t") != -1) {
            data[row][col] = "\"" + data[row][col] + "\"";
          }
        }

        // join each row's columns
        // add a carriage return to end of each row, except for the last one
        if (row < data.length-1) {
          tsv += data[row].join("\t") + "\r\n";
        }
        else {
        tsv += data[row].join("\t");
             }
      }
      tsvFile = tsv;
    }
    return tsvFile;
  }
  catch(err) {
    Logger.log(err);
    Browser.msgBox(err);
  }
}

If you don't know how to add an apps script to Google Spreadsheet, please follow this add an apps script to Google Spreadsheet tutorial.