visidata(1)
VisiData is an interactive terminal spreadsheet tool for exploring, analyzing, and transforming tabular data from various formats.
Synopsis
visidata [OPTIONS] [FILE]...Description
VisiData is a powerful terminal-based data exploration and analysis tool that opens CSV, JSON, Excel, SQL databases, and many other formats as interactive spreadsheets. It provides vim-like navigation, quick filtering, sorting, and transformation capabilities without requiring programming knowledge.
The tool excels at rapidly exploring large datasets, discovering patterns, and cleaning data. It supports expressions, custom columns, aggregations, and pivot tables. Data can be saved back to the original format or exported to new formats.
Common options
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
-f FORMAT | specify file format explicitly (csv, json, xlsx, sqlite, etc.) |
-p PROFILE | load a named profile with saved settings and commands |
--no-header | treat the first line as data, not column headers |
-d DELIMITER | specify field delimiter for CSV input (default: comma) |
--encoding ENCODING | specify file encoding (default: utf-8) |
-c COMMAND | execute a command on startup (can be used multiple times) |
--play SCRIPT | play back a recorded script of keypresses and commands |
--batch | run in batch mode without interactive UI (for automation) |
--silent | suppress non-essential output and logging |
-w WIDTH | set maximum column width in characters |
Examples
Open a CSV file interactively; navigate with arrow keys, press 'q' to quit
visidata data.csvOpen a JSON file, explicitly specifying format for faster loading
visidata -f json large.jsonOpen an Excel spreadsheet; cycle between sheets with 'gn' and 'gp'
visidata data.xlsxOpen a semicolon-delimited CSV file with explicit delimiter specification
visidata -d ';' semicolon-data.csvRun VisiData non-interactively to filter and save results
visidata --batch -c 'select-regex col1 "pattern"' -c 'save out.csv' data.csvPress '-' to filter column, '|' for regex filtering, 'c' to select columns
visidata data.csvReplay saved keystrokes and commands from a previous session
visidata --play commands.vd data.csvConnect to a PostgreSQL database and browse tables interactively
visidata 'postgresql:///dbname'