📊 CSV Compare CLI

A beautiful command-line tool to compare CSV files with an interactive web interface

Features • Installation • Usage • Examples • Screenshots

✨ Features

🎯 Core Functionality

• Side-by-Side Comparison - Compare two CSV files with intelligent difference detection
• Multiple View Modes - Switch between horizontal and vertical layouts
• Smart Diff Highlighting - Color-coded differences (additions, deletions, changes)
• CSV Parsing - Robust parsing with PapaParse library

🎨 User Interface

• Dark Theme - Beautiful, modern dark UI with Tailwind CSS
• Responsive Design - Works perfectly on desktop, tablet, and mobile
• Gradient Accents - Eye-catching gradient text and smooth transitions
• Professional Layout - Clean, organized interface with glassmorphism effects

🔧 Data Management

• Column Sorting - Click any column header to sort (ascending/descending)
• Pagination - Choose from 10, 25, 50, or 100 rows per page
• Real-time Search - Filter data across all columns instantly
• CSV Export - Export filtered/sorted data back to CSV format

📈 Analytics

• Live Statistics - Track row counts, differences, and match rates
• Match Rate Calculation - See percentage of matching rows at a glance
• Difference Counter - Know exactly how many rows differ

🚀 Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js 14.0.0 or higher
• npm or yarn

Global install

npm install -g csv-compare-cli

Quick Start

💻 Usage

Basic Command

csv-compare -s <source-file> -t <target-file>

Command Line Options

| Option | Alias | Description | Required | Default | |--------|-------|-------------|----------|---------| | --source | -s | Source CSV file path | ✅ Yes | - | | --target | -t | Target CSV file path | ✅ Yes | - | | --port | -p | Port number for web server | ❌ No | 3000 |

Examples

Compare two CSV files:

csv-compare -s data/customers_old.csv -t data/customers_new.csv

Use a custom port:

csv-compare -s sales_q1.csv -t sales_q2.csv -p 8080

📖 How It Works

1. Start the tool with your source and target CSV files
2. Server launches on the specified port (default: 3000)
3. Browser opens automatically with the comparison interface
4. Explore differences using the interactive UI

Understanding the Highlights

| Color | Meaning | |-------|---------| | 🟢 Green | Row/cell exists in target but not in source (addition) | | 🔴 Red | Row/cell exists in source but not in target (removal) | | 🟡 Yellow | Cell value changed between source and target | | ⚪ White | No difference detected |

🎨 Screenshots

Horizontal View (Side-by-Side)

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Source CSV        │  Target CSV        │
│  ┌──────────────┐  │  ┌──────────────┐  │
│  │ Row 1        │  │  │ Row 1        │  │
│  │ Row 2 (red)  │  │  │ Row 2 (green)│  │
│  │ Row 3        │  │  │ Row 3        │  │
│  └──────────────┘  │  └──────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Vertical View (Stacked)

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Source | Col1 | Col2 | Col3           │
│  Source | Data | Data | Data           │
│  Target | Col1 | Col2 | Col3           │
│  Target | Data | Data | Data (yellow)  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

🛠️ Features in Detail

Sorting

• Click any column header to sort
• First click: ascending order (↑)
• Second click: descending order (↓)
• Click another column to sort by that column

Search

• Type in the search box to filter rows
• Searches across ALL columns
• Case-insensitive matching
• Results update in real-time

Pagination

• Navigate through large datasets easily
• Choose your preferred page size
• Use Previous/Next buttons
• See current page number and total pages

Export

• Export Source - Download the source CSV with current filters
• Export Target - Download the target CSV with current filters
• Exports maintain the original CSV format

🎯 Use Cases

• Data Migration - Compare before/after data migrations
• Quality Assurance - Verify data transformations
• Version Control - Track changes between dataset versions
• Data Auditing - Identify discrepancies in exports
• ETL Validation - Confirm extract-transform-load processes
• Database Synchronization - Compare database exports

🚦 Troubleshooting

Port Already in Use

If port 3000 is busy, specify a different port:

csv-compare -s file1.csv -t file2.csv -p 8080

File Not Found

Ensure your CSV file paths are correct:

# Use relative paths
csv-compare  -s ./data/file1.csv -t ./data/file2.csv

# Or absolute paths
csv-compare -s /Users/name/documents/file1.csv -t /Users/name/documents/file2.csv

Browser Doesn't Open

If the browser doesn't open automatically:

1. Check the console output for the URL
2. Manually open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000

Large CSV Files

For very large files (>100MB):

• Node.js might need more memory: node --max-old-space-size=4096 index.js -s file1.csv -t file2.csv
• Use pagination to view data in smaller chunks
• Consider filtering/splitting your CSVs first

📝 CSV Format Requirements

• Files must be valid CSV format
• First row should contain column headers
• Supported encodings: UTF-8 (recommended), ASCII
• Both files should have similar structure for best comparison results

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here are some ways you can help:

• 🐛 Report bugs
• 💡 Suggest new features
• 📖 Improve documentation
• 🔧 Submit pull requests

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Made with ❤️ for data enthusiasts