Command-Line CSV Viewer

Geoffrey Hunter

mbedded.ninja Author

1. Create a new file called csv in /usr/bin/ (or in /usr/bin/local/ if it exists in your distro):

   $ sudo vim /usr/bin/csv

2. 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

3. Exit vim (good luck!). Make this script executable:

   $ sudo chmod +x ./csv

4. 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:

   $ csv my_file.csv