Useful tricks for processing CSV files

CSV and Me

© Photo by Taylor Smith on Unsplash

© Photo by Taylor Smith on Unsplash

Article from Issue 299/2025
Author(s):

With a few tools, you can harness the data available in even the most troublesome CSV files.

You can say what you want to about visual programming, vibe coding, and AI. The truth is, the world is chock full of data that can be converted into simple formats and processed with simple tools.

This article describes some tricks I've collected over the years for dealing with comma-separated value (CSV) files. I'll also present a little tool that will make those tricks work even on troublesome data files.

CSV files are simply plain text files that, if necessary, you could read on any terminal with commands like cat or more or write and modify with a text editor.

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