csvkit-cli

A zero-dependency CLI for working with CSV files. Convert, filter, sort, slice, and analyze CSV data from your terminal.

Install

npm install -g csvkit-cli

Commands

csvkit json <file.csv>

Convert a CSV file to JSON (array of objects).

csvkit json data.csv
# [{"name":"Alice","age":"30"},{"name":"Bob","age":"25"}]

csvkit json data.csv > output.json

csvkit json2csv <file.json>

Convert a JSON array of objects to CSV.

csvkit json2csv data.json
# name,age
# Alice,30
# Bob,25

csvkit json2csv data.json > output.csv

csvkit columns <file.csv>

List the column names in a CSV file.

csvkit columns data.csv
# name
# age
# city

csvkit head <file.csv> [n]

Show the first n rows (default 10). Outputs as formatted CSV.

csvkit head data.csv
csvkit head data.csv 5

csvkit count <file.csv>

Count the number of data rows (excludes header).

csvkit count data.csv
# 1542

csvkit sort <file.csv> <column> [--desc]

Sort rows by a column. Detects numeric values automatically.

csvkit sort data.csv age
csvkit sort data.csv age --desc

csvkit filter <file.csv> <column> <value>

Filter rows where a column equals a given value.

csvkit filter data.csv city "New York"
csvkit filter data.csv active true

csvkit pick <file.csv> <col1,col2,...>

Select specific columns from a CSV file.

csvkit pick data.csv name,age
csvkit pick data.csv "first name,last name,email"

csvkit stats <file.csv> <column>

Show basic statistics for a numeric column: min, max, mean, median, sum, and count.

csvkit stats data.csv age
# count:  100
# min:    18
# max:    65
# sum:    3842
# mean:   38.42
# median: 37

csvkit unique <file.csv> <column>

List unique values in a column.

csvkit unique data.csv city
# New York
# Los Angeles
# Chicago

Piping

All commands output to stdout, so you can pipe them into other tools:

csvkit filter data.csv status active | csvkit sort - name | csvkit pick - name,email
csvkit json data.csv | jq '.[0]'
csvkit json2csv data.json | csvkit count -

Use - as the filename to read from stdin.

CSV Parsing

The built-in parser handles:

• Quoted fields containing commas: "New York, NY"
• Escaped quotes: "She said ""hello"""
• Newlines inside quoted fields
• Mixed quoted and unquoted fields

Requirements

Node.js >= 14.0.0. No dependencies.

License

MIT