> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://reference.flatfile.com/api-reference/sheets/get-cell-values/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://reference.flatfile.com/_mcp/server.

# Get record cells by field

GET https://api.x.flatfile.com/v1/sheets/{sheetId}/cells

Returns record cell values grouped by all fields in the sheet

Reference: https://reference.flatfile.com/api-reference/sheets/get-cell-values

## Authentication

- `Authorization` header (bearer token, required) — Bearer authentication of the form `Bearer <token>`, where token is your auth token.

## Request

### Path parameters

- `sheetId` (string, required) — ID of sheet

### Query parameters

- `fieldKey` (string, optional) — Returns results from the given field only. Otherwise all field cells are returned
- `sortField` (string, optional) — Name of field by which to sort records
- `sortDirection` (enum, optional) — Sort direction - asc (ascending) or desc (descending)
  - Allowed values: `asc`, `desc`
- `filter` (enum, optional) — Options to filter records
  - Allowed values: `valid`, `error`, `all`, `none`
- `filterField` (string, optional) — Name of field by which to filter records
- `pageSize` (integer, optional) — Number of records to return in a page (default 1000 if pageNumber included)
- `pageNumber` (integer, optional) — Based on pageSize, which page of records to return
- `distinct` (boolean, required) — Must be set to true
- `includeCounts` (boolean, optional) — When both distinct and includeCounts are true, the count of distinct field values will be returned
- `searchValue` (string, optional) — A value to find for a given field in a sheet. Wrap the value in "" for exact match
- `q` (string, optional) — An FFQL query used to filter the records to be queried

## Response

### 200

- `data` (map from string to list of CellValueWithCounts, required) — Cell values grouped by field key

## Types

### CellValueWithCounts

- `counts` (RecordCounts, optional)
- `layer` (string, optional)
- `messages` (list of ValidationMessage, optional)
- `updatedAt` (datetime, optional)
- `valid` (boolean, optional)
- `value` (CellValueUnion, optional)
- `metadata` (map from string to any, optional, deprecated) — Deprecated, use record level metadata instead.

### RecordCounts

- `total` (integer, required)
- `valid` (integer, required)
- `error` (integer, required)
- `byField` (map from string to FieldRecordCounts, optional) — Counts for valid, error, and total records grouped by field key
- `errorsByField` (map from string to integer, optional, deprecated)

### ValidationMessage

Record data validation messages

- `field` (string, optional)
- `type` (enum, optional)
  - Allowed values: `error`, `warn`, `info`
- `source` (enum, optional)
  - Allowed values: `required-constraint`, `unique-constraint`, `custom-logic`, `unlinked`, `invalid-option`, `is-artifact`
- `message` (string, optional)
- `path` (string, optional) — This JSONPath is based on the root of mapped cell object.

### CellValueUnion

### FieldRecordCounts

- `total` (integer, required)
- `valid` (integer, required)
- `error` (integer, required)
- `empty` (integer, required)

## Examples

**Response**

```json
{
  "data": {
    "firstName": [
      {
        "counts": {
          "total": 1,
          "valid": 1,
          "error": 0
        },
        "valid": true,
        "value": "Mike"
      },
      {
        "counts": {
          "total": 1,
          "valid": 1,
          "error": 0
        },
        "valid": true,
        "value": "Jordan"
      }
    ]
  }
}
```

**SDK Code**

```python Example0
import requests

url = "https://api.x.flatfile.com/v1/sheets/us_sh_YOUR_ID/cells"

querystring = {"distinct":"true","fieldKey":"firstName","sortField":"firstName","sortDirection":"asc","filter":"valid"}

headers = {
    "X-Disable-Hooks": "true",
    "Authorization": "Bearer <token>"
}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=querystring)

print(response.json())
```

```typescript Example0
import { FlatfileClient } from "@flatfile/api";

const client = new FlatfileClient({ token: "YOUR_TOKEN" });
await client.sheets.getCellValues("us_sh_YOUR_ID", {
    distinct: true,
    fieldKey: "firstName",
    sortField: "firstName",
    sortDirection: "asc",
    filter: "valid"
});

```

```go Example0
package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"io"
)

func main() {

	url := "https://api.x.flatfile.com/v1/sheets/us_sh_YOUR_ID/cells?distinct=true&fieldKey=firstName&sortField=firstName&sortDirection=asc&filter=valid"

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", url, nil)

	req.Header.Add("X-Disable-Hooks", "true")
	req.Header.Add("Authorization", "Bearer <token>")

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(res)
	fmt.Println(string(body))

}
```

```ruby Example0
require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

url = URI("https://api.x.flatfile.com/v1/sheets/us_sh_YOUR_ID/cells?distinct=true&fieldKey=firstName&sortField=firstName&sortDirection=asc&filter=valid")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(url)
request["X-Disable-Hooks"] = 'true'
request["Authorization"] = 'Bearer <token>'

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body
```

```java Example0
import com.mashape.unirest.http.HttpResponse;
import com.mashape.unirest.http.Unirest;

HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.get("https://api.x.flatfile.com/v1/sheets/us_sh_YOUR_ID/cells?distinct=true&fieldKey=firstName&sortField=firstName&sortDirection=asc&filter=valid")
  .header("X-Disable-Hooks", "true")
  .header("Authorization", "Bearer <token>")
  .asString();
```

```php Example0
<?php
require_once('vendor/autoload.php');

$client = new \GuzzleHttp\Client();

$response = $client->request('GET', 'https://api.x.flatfile.com/v1/sheets/us_sh_YOUR_ID/cells?distinct=true&fieldKey=firstName&sortField=firstName&sortDirection=asc&filter=valid', [
  'headers' => [
    'Authorization' => 'Bearer <token>',
    'X-Disable-Hooks' => 'true',
  ],
]);

echo $response->getBody();
```

```csharp Example0
using RestSharp;

var client = new RestClient("https://api.x.flatfile.com/v1/sheets/us_sh_YOUR_ID/cells?distinct=true&fieldKey=firstName&sortField=firstName&sortDirection=asc&filter=valid");
var request = new RestRequest(Method.GET);
request.AddHeader("X-Disable-Hooks", "true");
request.AddHeader("Authorization", "Bearer <token>");
IRestResponse response = client.Execute(request);
```

```swift Example0
import Foundation

let headers = [
  "X-Disable-Hooks": "true",
  "Authorization": "Bearer <token>"
]

let request = NSMutableURLRequest(url: NSURL(string: "https://api.x.flatfile.com/v1/sheets/us_sh_YOUR_ID/cells?distinct=true&fieldKey=firstName&sortField=firstName&sortDirection=asc&filter=valid")! as URL,
                                        cachePolicy: .useProtocolCachePolicy,
                                    timeoutInterval: 10.0)
request.httpMethod = "GET"
request.allHTTPHeaderFields = headers

let session = URLSession.shared
let dataTask = session.dataTask(with: request as URLRequest, completionHandler: { (data, response, error) -> Void in
  if (error != nil) {
    print(error as Any)
  } else {
    let httpResponse = response as? HTTPURLResponse
    print(httpResponse)
  }
})

dataTask.resume()
```