An Introduction to VisiData

VisiData is a free, open-source tool that lets you quickly open, explore, summarize, and analyze datasets in your computer’s terminal. VisiData works with CSV files, Excel spreadsheets, SQL databases, and many other data sources. The interface looks like this:

  File  Edit  View  Column  Row  Data  Plot  System  Help               Ctrl+H for help menu        
 OPERATOR           ║↓count♯| percent%| histogram                                         ~║        
 UNKNOWN            ║ 23076 |   31.42 | ************************************************** ║        
 SOUTHWEST AIRLINES ║  7752 |   10.55 | ****************                                   ║        
 BUSINESS           ║  5868 |    7.99 | ************                                       ║        
 AMERICAN AIRLINES  ║  4337 |    5.90 | *********                                          ║        
 DELTA AIR LINES    ║  2817 |    3.84 | ******                                             ║        
 FEDEX EXPRESS      ║  2709 |    3.69 | *****                                              ║        
 UNITED AIRLINES    ║  2194 |    2.99 | ****                                               ║        
 US AIRWAYS         ║  1885 |    2.57 | ****                                               ║        
 UPS AIRLINES       ║  1773 |    2.41 | ***                                                ║        
 SKYWEST AIRLINES   ║  1769 |    2.41 | ***                                                ║        
 JETBLUE AIRWAYS    ║  1740 |    2.37 | ***                                                ║        
 EXPRESSJET AIRLINES║  1347 |    1.83 | **                                                 ║        
 AMERICAN EAGLE AIR…║  1041 |    1.42 | **                                                 ║        
 ENVOY AIR          ║   883 |    1.20 | *                                                  ║        
 ALASKA AIRLINES    ║   835 |    1.14 | *                                                  ║        
 REPUBLIC AIRLINES  ║   804 |    1.09 | *                                                  ║        
 MESA AIRLINES      ║   693 |    0.94 | *                                                  ║        
 AIR WISCONSIN AIRL…║   623 |    0.85 | *                                                  ║        
 PSA AIRLINES       ║   577 |    0.79 | *                                                  ║        
 PRIVATELY OWNED    ║   516 |    0.70 | *                                                  ║        
 PHI INC            ║   491 |    0.67 | *                                                  ║        
2› faa-wildlife-strikes_OPERATOR_freq|                                 Shift+F         282 bins  •0 

Very quickly, VisiData has become the tool I reach for first when I encounter a new dataset. I think you might enjoy it, too.

About This Tutorial

Note

This tutorial is not officially affiliated with VisiData, and is not intended as a comprehensive reference. You can learn more about VisiData from these official sources:

Tutorial Structure

This tutorial is divided into five sections:

Section	Description	Status
The Big Picture	If you read nothing else …	Draft complete
Basic Usage	All you need to know to get started	Draft complete
Intermediate Usage	Some of the handiest power-features	Draft complete
Advanced Usage	How to bend VisiData to your whims	Two chapters drafted
Practical Examples	Step-by-step walkthroughs	Two examples drafted

To be notified of new material and/or major updates, sign up here.

Tutorial Status

Tutorial last updated	2021-09-22
VisiData version	2.6

from Hacker News https://ift.tt/2GjgcXO