CSV Viewer

CSV Viewer: Read files as a table and sort their rows

The CSV Viewer arranges CSV fields in a table without opening a spreadsheet application. Load a file or paste CSV text. Choose whether the first row contains column headers, then click “View CSV”. The result reports all data rows, the column count and the delimiter. The header does not count as a data row.

Load a file or paste text

Use one source at a time. Clear the file selection before inspecting pasted text. Files are read as UTF-8; if accented characters look wrong, save the source using that encoding. Changed inputs take effect only after clicking the view button again. The original file stays unchanged.

Automatic detection compares commas, semicolons and tabs outside quoted fields. Short or ambiguous input can produce a wrong guess. Select the delimiter manually in that case. For conversion between data formats, use the JSON CSV Converter.

Understand quotes and line breaks

Quoted fields follow the conventions in RFC 4180: a field can contain delimiters and line breaks when double quotes enclose the entire field. A quote inside a field is written twice. In addition to commas, the viewer accepts semicolons and tabs, with CRLF or LF line endings. Empty fields remain empty. A final line break does not create another data row.

Rows with different field counts are accepted. Missing fields appear as empty cells, and export adds those empty cells too. The longest row determines the column count. For work on individual fields, try the CSV Column Tool.

Sort rows and save the current view

Click a column header to sort ascending, then click again for descending order. If every value in the data column is numeric, the viewer compares numeric values. Decimal commas and points are accepted, but thousands separators are not. Other columns use natural text order: “item2” comes before “item10”. Leading zeroes remain part of the cell text. Sorting considers every parsed row, not just the visible section.

The display and CSV export include at most 500 data rows, plus the header when enabled. The download preserves the current order and delimiter and quotes every field correctly. For dataset summaries, use CSV Statistics.

Large files and formula limits

Files above 5 MB or 20,000 rows still parse and trigger a notice. The view stays limited, but large inputs can still consume memory and block the browser. This is a viewer, not a spreadsheet: it has no cell editing or formula evaluation. Formula-like content is unchanged in the export. Another spreadsheet application may execute it when you open the file. Check unfamiliar CSV data before using it elsewhere.

Frequently asked questions