Tidy Viewer (tv) is a cross-platform csv pretty printer that uses column styling to maximize viewer enjoyment.
The following install options are available
- Cargo Install from crates.io
- Cargo Install from source
- Linux Install
- Debian
.debinstall - AUR install
The following will install from the crates.io source. For convenience add the alas alias tv='tidy-viewer' to bashrc.
cargo install tidy-viewer
sudo cp /home/user/.cargo/bin/tidy-viewer /usr/local/bin/.
echo "alias tv='tidy-viewer'" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrcThe current version is alpha. I do not plan to push to crates.io until this is more polished. If you would like to try this in its raw state install rust and follow the steps below.
- Clone repo
cargo build --release- cp binary to
bin - Add
alias tv='tidy-viewer'to~/.bashrc
git clone https://github.com/alexhallam/tv
cd tv
cargo build --release
sudo cp ./target/release/tidy-viewer /usr/local/bin/.
echo "alias tv='tidy-viewer'" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrcwget https://github.com/alexhallam/tv/releases/download/0.0.10/tidy-viewer
chmod +x tidy-viewer
echo "alias tv='tidy-viewer'" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrcgit clone https://github.com/alexhallam/tv
cd tv
sudo dpkg -i target/debian/tidy-viewer_<version_number>_amd64.deb
echo "alias tv='tidy-viewer'" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrcparu -S tidy-viewerHave some fun with the following datasets!
# Download the diamonds data
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tidyverse/ggplot2/master/data-raw/diamonds.csv
# pipe to tv
cat diamonds.csv | tvwget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tidyverse/dplyr/master/data-raw/starwars.csv
cat starwars.csv | tvwget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/joanby/python-ml-course/master/datasets/pigeon-race/pigeon-racing.csv
cat pigeon-racing.csv | tv
The first three digits represent > 99.9% the value of a number. -- GNU-R Pillar
tv uses the same significant figure (sigfig) rules that the R package pillar uses.
The purpose of the sigfig rules in tv is to guide the eye to the most important information in a number. This section defines terms and the decision tree used in the calculation of the final value displayed.
┌─────┐ ┌─────┐ ─┐
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ ┌┐ │ │ │
└─────┘ └┘ └─────┘ ──┴─
│ │ │ │
└────────┘ ▲ └────────────────┘
left hand side │ right hand side
(lhs) │ (rhs)
decimal
left hand side (lhs): digits on the left hand side of the decimal.
right hand side (rhs): digits on the right hand side of the decimal.
┌─────┐ ┌─────┐ ─┐ ┌─────┐
│ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ ┌┐ │ │ │ │ │
└─────┘ └┘ └─────┘ ──┴─ └─────┘
│ │ │ │
└─────────────────────┘ └───────┘
leading 0s trailing 0s
leading 0s: 0s to the left of a non-zero.
trailing 0s: 0s to the right of a non-zero. The zeros in 500m are trailing as well as the 0s in 0.500km.
─┐ ┌─────┐ ─┐
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ ┌┐ │
──┴─ └─────┘ └┘ ──┴─
│ │
└────────┘
fractional digit(s)
fractional digits: Digits on the rhs of the decimal. The represent the non-integer part of a number.
There are only 4 outputs possible. The significant figures to display are set by the user. Assume sigfig = 3:
- lhs only (
12345.0 -> 12345): If no fractional digits are present and lhs >= sigfig then return lhs - lhs + point (
1234.5 -> 1234.): If fractional digits are present and lhs >= sigfig then return lhs with point. This is to let the user know that some decimal dust is beyond the main mass of the number. - lhs + point + rhs (
1.2345 -> 1.23): If fractional digits are present and lhs < sigfig return the first three digits of the number. - long rhs (
0.00001 -> 0.00001): This is reserved for values with leading 0s in the rhs.
# Psuedo Code: Sigfig logic assuming sigfig = 3
if lhs == 0:
n = ((floor(log10(abs(x))) + 1 - sigfig)
r =(10^n) * round(x / (10^n))
return r
// (0.12345 -> 0.123)
else:
if log10(lhs) + 1 > sigfig:
if rhs > 0:
//concatenate:
//(lhs)
//(point)
//(123.45 -> 123.)
else:
//concatenate:
//(lhs)
//(1234.0 -> 1234)
//(100.0 -> 100)
else:
//concatenate:
//(lhs)
//(point)
//sigfig - log10(lhs) from rhs
//(12.345 -> 12.3)
//(1.2345 -> 1.23)
tv is a good compliment to command line data manipulation tools. I have listed some tools that I like to use with tv.
xsv - Command line csv data manipulation. Rust
csvtk - Command line csv data manipulation. Go
tsv-utils - Command line csv data manipulation toolkit. D
q - Command line csv data manipulation query-like. Python
miller - Command line data manipulation, statistics, and more. C
column Comes standard with linux. To get similar functionality run column file.csv -ts,
Though column is similar I do think there are some reasons tv is a better tool.
NA values are very important! Viewers should have their attention drawn to these empty cells. In the image below NA values are not only invisible, but it seems to be causing incorrect alignment in other columns.
In cases where the terminal width can't fit all of the columns in a dataframe, column will try to smush data on the rows below. This results in an unpleasant viewing experience.
tv can automatically tell when there will be too many columns to print. When this occurs it will only print the columns that fit in the terminal and mention the extras in the footer below the table.
pillar - R's tibble like formatting. Fantastic original work by Kirill Müller and Hadley Wickham. tv makes an attempt to port their ideas to the terminal.