Slicing and dicing data with csvkit

Okay team, this week we’re diving back into data and the command line. Just a li’l bit.

Our featured tool is csvkit, which manipulates spreadsheet files from the command line. A .csv is a really common type of spreadsheet, like .xls or .txt. A tool that only handles one spreadsheet filetype may sound overly specific for this email list, but you can easily convert other tables into CSVs, and csvkit can do so much:

Photo from Chris Groskopf, Source

I’d suggest you read Chris Groskopf’s 11 Awesome Things You Can Do With csvkit over on Source.

Do you ever use data, or Excel, or Google Sheets? Don’t let the command line or the contiguous consonants scare you away. Csvkit really can work wonders – any time I hear about it, it’s because it’s solved somebody’s unsolvable problem. As always, ping me with any questions! I’m happy to go into more detail for anybody who’ll listen.