Command-Line CSV Viewer

Authors:

Geoffrey Hunter

Published On:

Jun 18, 2019

Last Updated:

Jun 18, 2019

Create a new file called csv in /usr/bin/ (or in /usr/bin/local/ if it exists in your distro):
Terminal window
```
$ sudo vim /usr/bin/csv
```

Paste the following code into the file (credit goes to Benjamin Noakes for this code):

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Author: Benjamin Oakes <[email protected]>
set -o errexit

function show_usage {
  cat <<EOF
Usage: $0 [--help] [filename]
View a CSV file at the command line.
  --help        Show this help text.
  filename      CSV file to be viewed
EOF
  exit -1
}

if [ "$1" == "--help" -o "$1" == "" ]; then
  show_usage
fi

cat "$1" | column -s, -t | less -#2 -N -S

Exit vim (good luck!). Make this script executable:
Terminal window
```
$ sudo chmod +x ./csv
```
All done! As long as /usr/bin/ is on your PATH, you should be able to nicely display CSV files in the command line with:
Terminal window
```
$ csv my_file.csv
```