CSV Lint plug-in for Notepad++, view, edit, sort and convert text data more easily

The CSV Lint plug-in for Notepad++ is useful when working with CSV files (comma separated values) and fixed width text files. It adds syntax highlighting to a csv file, so display each column in a different color, automatically detect the column meta data and data types, it can validate data and check for errors, reformat datetime and decimal values, count unique values and it can generate a data analyze report and SQL insert script.
CSV Lint is somewhat similar to Rainbow CSV or CudaText CSV, except it also recognizes column datatypes, so you can convert datetime and decimal values, sort a dataset, generate SQL, Python or Rstudio scripts, generate datadictionary with column metadata, and other processing and data validation features.
0:00 How to install
1:30 Syntax highlight colors
3:25 Meta data
4:22 Validate data
5:21 Reformat data
6:25 Other features
CSV Lint plug-in on GitHub
github.com/BdR76/CSVLint
If you want to support this project, you can buy me a coffee.
www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
This is not strictly CSV Lint related, but if you have a Microsoft account, you can help by upvoting these two csv questions on the Microsoft feedback page, thanks
feedback.azure.com/d365commun...
* The data in this video is not real production data, it is randomly generated test data, see github.com/BdR76/RandomValuesNPP

[@j.k6580]

love it, show many use of csv lint

[@BradGroux]

This was a lifesaver, thanks for such a great tutorial!

[@BdR76]

Thanks, nice to hear you found it useful 😃 I'm curious, which feature was the "lifesaver" part, the csv-to-sql or just the highlighting colors, or something else?

[@OverlordRS]

Amazing plugin! Thank you!

[@kaoote]

great video and great tool!

[@KunjaBihariKrishna]

I didn't realize there was a dark mode. I kinda got used to the default colors. They are super easy to see. I'm actually having a hard time adjusting to dark mode now. I'm not sure if I really like it better

[@BdR76]

Yes Notepad++ has darkmode support for a while now. The CSV Lint plugin has color schemes for dark-mode syntax highlighting, but the dialogs will always display in default light-mode. I don't quite know how to fix this, but maybe in a future release.

[@Limofeus]

Hello, this is really an amazing pluggin! I am trying to make a localization files for my progect in csv format and I use 4 symbols as a separator, comma with space in quotes (", ") so for now I use Delimited(") and have some spare comma columns, so it would be cool if you could use not char, but string as a separator, something like Delimited(", "). Also, im not sure if this is possible with notepad++ but some sort of arrangement of values in more spreadsheet like form would be also quite handy, but colors are already good enough. So, huge thanks for the plugin and keep up the great work!

[@BdR76]

Thanks for the suggestion, to arrange the data like a spreadsheet you can go to Reformat -> check Align vertically -> press OK. Using more than one character as separator isn't possible, that would require a complete overhaul of the plug-in. However in the latest update v0.4.5 there is an update to recognise white space before quotes. Meaning you just can set it to Format=CSVDelimited and the plugin will interpret line "abc", "test", "123", "etc" correctly

[@cjw3688]

Thanks for giving us this very useful tooling! Could it be made possible to have the column header getting the same colors as the columns?

[@BdR76]

Thanks, that's nice to hear you found it useful 😃 The column headers do get the same colors, but maybe it's obscured by the selection line (blue row)? You could try selecting a different colorset from the menu "CSVLint > Settings".

[@BdR76]

Just wanted to let you know, the next update v0.4.5 makes the cursor line transparent, so column colors are always visible.

[@cjw3688]

Can you tell if there's a limit to the coloring when having a file of 494.909.156 bytes with 335.465 lines and 188 columns being semicolon separated? Asking as it seems to not do the trick for this file while it perfectly does for others.

[@BdR76]

Currently in v0.4.4 there is still a known issue with opening really large files (around 50 MB or larger). The syntax highlighting takes too long to render, which causes Notepad++ to freeze. Rendering the colors on a separate thread in the backgound could fix this, that option will be available in the next update.

[@thorbjrnhellehaven5766]

Seems like a nice plugin, but I was hoping it had some display features to align the columns. I want to edit CSV-files, in a sheet, but without text formatting. If I use Excel, and copy text from a web-page, it's more hassle to paste without formatting.

[@thorbjrnhellehaven5766]

If I use tab as delimiter, it is a workaround to use increase the tab-setting, but I would love if the view automatically aligned the columns with the width in the metadata.

[@thorbjrnhellehaven5766]

And I want to keep the tab width for coding purposes.

[@hellonterna7636]

Hey, friend. Very good work! Love this plugin. Unfortunately it's not working on version 8.4. Are you aware of this version?

[@BdR76]

Thanks for the comment, yes I was aware of this. There is a new version 0.4.5.1 which fixes this issue. It will be automatically available in the next Notepad++ update, but in the meantime you can install it manually. Go to github and then "releases" and download the CSVLint_x64.zip and see "How to install" on the main page.

[@creativenametxt2960]

I can't seem to make the highlighting work with any separator other than ; using current latest version of notepad++, want to use , the column auto detection tool works, but the highlight only picks up on ; symbol

[@creativenametxt2960]

nvm the problem magically fixed itself, potentially due to line endings or something

[@justinweinzierl7547]

How do you delete columns?

[@BdR76]

The CSV Lint plugin was updated recently, and in the newest version at "add new column" you can right click to deselect all options and remove a column with the "Remove original column" checkbox, see more info here github.com/BdR76/CSVLint/tree/master/docs#remove-original-column

[@Xexorian]

how do I get the CSV values to be vertically aligned like columns are in excel?

[@BdR76]

Go to the menu item "Plugins > CSV Lint > CSV Lint window" (or click the small toolbar icon), then press "Reformat" button, click only the checkbox "Align vertically" and press OK. Btw make sure the textbox below the Reformat button contains the correct columns metadata before clicking the "Reformat" button, you can click "Detect columns" to automatically detect the metadata.

[@Xexorian]

@@BdR76 worked like a charm, thanks a bunch - loving the dark mode and config options combined with this 🤌