Google-sheets – Reference an array’s data in Google Sheets

So I've searched long and hard for a good answer to this and here is what I have found:

1. an unmodified range parameter passes in the values of cells in the range, not the range itself (as Gergely explained) ex: when you do this =myFunction(a1:a2)

2. to use a range in your function you need to first pass the range in as a string (ex: =myFunction("a1:a2") ), then turn it into a range with the following code inside the function:

   Function myFunction(pRange){
     var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
     var range = sheet.getRange(pRange);
   }
   

3. Finally, if you want the benefits of passing in a range (like intelligently copying range references to other cells) AND you want to pass it in as a string, you have to use a default function that accepts a range as a parameter and outputs a string you can use. I detail both ways I have found below, but I prefer the 2nd.

For all Google spreadsheets:
=myFunction(ADDRESS(row(A1),COLUMN(A1),4)&":"&ADDRESS(row(A2),COLUMN(A2),4))

For the new Google Sheets:

=myFunction(CELL("address",A1)&":"&CELL("address",A2))

With a sleight of hand, you can use Bubble chart for this.

First, you'll need to move your data a bit (this can be arranged automatically) so that the name of data series appear in its own column, in every row that belongs to the series. This is Column D below. Columns B and C are x- and y- values. Column A is intentionally left blank (it is ordinarily the text that's written on the bubble.)

+---+------+------+-----+----+
| A |  B   |  C   |  D  | E  |
+---+------+------+-----+----+
|   | 1    | 4.00 | #2i |  1 |
|   | 2    | 1.41 | #2i |  1 |
|   | 3    | 1.73 | #2i |  1 |
|   | 4    | 2.00 | #2i |  1 |
|   | 5    | 2.24 | #2i |  1 |
|   | -0.5 | 1.22 | #2o |  1 |
|   | 0.5  | 1.58 | #2o |  1 |
|   | 1.5  | 1.87 | #2o |  1 |
|   | 2.5  | 2.12 | #2o |  1 |
|   | 0.7  | 1.70 | #3o |  1 |
|   | 1.7  | 2.70 | #3o |  1 |
|   | 2.7  | 3.70 | #3o |  1 |
|   | 3.7  | 4.70 | #3o |  1 |
|   | 4.3  | 4.00 | #3o |  1 |
|   | 0    | 0.00 |     | 10 |
+---+------+------+-----+----+

Column E gives the size of each bubble, in some relative terms. It is optional, but if you omit it, or put the same number everywhere, the bubbles will be much too large. My workaround is to add a dummy data point (last row), which gets size 10, so that the real data points will become proportionally smaller. To hide this dummy point, I put a space in its column D, and made the color of the bubble white (I also removed the border of all bubbles, otherwise it was still showing).

A bit too much fuss for my liking, but this is the only way I know.