Modern CSV 2.1
Because CSV is an interchange format, I usually import files into a spreadsheet, make any necessary changes, and then save, print, or export for whatever my next step is. I usually use Excel for processing because it can save an opened CSV without a separate export step, which Numbers requires. Google Sheets would also require exporting and would clutter my Google Drive with temporary documents that I need only briefly.
Please don’t interpret my usage of Excel as an endorsement, though. I have a fractious relationship with Excel, particularly when working with running times, which spreadsheets treat like times of day and often reformat in weird ways.
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I ran across an intriguing app earlier this year that has become my go-to tool for working with CSV files: Modern CSV. When you launch it, it looks like a spreadsheet, displaying data in rows and columns, but it doesn’t require that you write formulas to manipulate data. Instead, it has an extensive set of data manipulation capabilities that you apply directly to the contents of a CSV file. In essence, Modern CSV uses CSV as its native format and lets you choose common data transformation, conversion, concatenation, and other actions from menus instead of pre-parsing files in a text editor or building formulas and juggling results columns in a spreadsheet app. With CSV as the native file format, you skip all that to work directly with tabular data.
If you need more than what Excel and BBEdit can do, this looks great.
Previously:
- Renaming Human Genes for Excel
- Opening Large CSV Files in Numbers 10.0
- Opening Huge CSV Files
- Falsehoods About Time and CSVs
- Writing a CSV Parser
