Provided by: visidata_1.5.2-1_all 
NAME
VisiData — a terminal utility for exploring and arranging tabular data
SYNOPSIS
vd [options] [input ...]
vd [options] --play cmdlog [-w waitsecs] [--batch] [-o output] [field=value ...]
DESCRIPTION
VisiData is a multipurpose tool built on the vdtui platform that can be used to explore, clean, edit, and
restructure data. Rows can be selected, filtered, and grouped; columns can be rearranged, transformed,
and derived via regex or Python expressions; and workflows can be saved, documented, and replayed.
REPLAY MODE
-p, --play=cmdlog replay a saved cmdlog within the interface
-w, --replay-wait=seconds
wait seconds between commands
-b, --batch replay in batch mode (with no interface)
-o, --output=file save final visible sheet to file as .tsv
--replay-movement toggle --play to move cursor cell-by-cell
field=value replace "{field}" in cmdlog contents with value
Commands During Replay
^U pause/resume replay
Tab execute next row in replaying sheet
^K cancel current replay
GLOBAL COMMANDS
In most cases, commands that affect selected rows will affect all rows if no rows are selected.
Keystrokes for the Cautious
^H view this man page
z^H view sheet of commands and keybindings
^Q abort program immediately
^C cancel user input or abort all async threads on current sheet
q quit current sheet
gq quit all sheets (clean exit)
Cursor Movement
Arrow PgUp Home move as expected
h j k l move left/down/up/right
gh gj gk gl move all the way to the left/bottom/top/right of sheet
G gg move all the way to the bottom/top of sheet
^B ^F scroll one page back/forward
^^ (Ctrl-^) jump to previous sheet (swaps with current sheet)
/ ? regex search for regex forward/backward in current column
g/ g? regex search for regex forward/backward over all visible columns
z/ z? expr search by Python expr forward/backward in current column (with column names as
variables)
n N move to next/previous match from last search
< > move up/down to next value in current column
z< z> move up/down to next null in current column
{ } move up/down to next selected row
c regex move to next column with name matching regex
r regex move to next row with key matching regex
zc zr number move to column/row number (0-based)
H J K L slide current row/column left/down/up/right
gH gJ gK gL slide current row/column all the way to the left/bottom/top/right of sheet
zh zj zk zl scroll one left/down/up/right
Column Manipulation
_ (underscore) adjust width of current column
g_ adjust width of all visible columns
z_ number adjust width of current column to number
- (hyphen) hide current column
z- reduce width of current column by half
gv unhide all columns
! z! toggle/unset current column as a key column
~ # % $ @ z#
set type of current column to str/int/float/currency/date/len
^ edit name of current column
g^ set names of all unnamed visible columns to contents of selected rows (or current row)
z^ set name of current column to combined contents of current cell in selected rows (or
current row)
gz^ set name of all visible columns to combined contents of current column for selected rows
(or current row)
= expr create new column from Python expr, with column names as variables
g= expr set current column for selected rows to result of Python expr
gz= expr set current column for selected rows to the items in result of Python sequence expr
z= expr evaluate Python expression on current row and show result on status line
' (tick) add a frozen copy of current column with all cells evaluated
g' open a frozen copy of current sheet with all visible columns evaluated
z' gz' reset cache for current/all visible column(s)
: regex add new columns from regex split; number of columns determined by example row at cursor
; regex add new columns from capture groups of regex (also requires example row)
z; expr add new column from bash expr, with $columnNames as variables
* regex/subst add column derived from current column, replacing regex with subst (may include \1
backrefs)
g* gz* regex/subst
modify selected rows in current/all visible column(s), replacing regex with subst (may
include \1 backrefs)
( g( expand current/all visible column(s) of lists (e.g. [3]) or dicts (e.g. {3}) fully
z( gz( depth expand current/all visible column(s) of lists (e.g. [3]) or dicts (e.g. {3}) to given
depth (0= fully)
) unexpand current column; restore original column and remove other columns at this level
Row Selection
s t u select/toggle/unselect current row
gs gt gu select/toggle/unselect all rows
zs zt zu select/toggle/unselect rows from top to cursor
gzs gzt gzu select/toggle/unselect rows from cursor to bottom
| \ regex select/unselect rows matching regex in current column
g| g\ regex select/unselect rows matching regex in any visible column
z| z\ expr select/unselect rows matching Python expr in any visible column
, (comma) select rows matching current cell in current column
g, select rows matching current row in all visible columns
Row Sorting/Filtering
[ ] sort ascending/descending by current column
g[ g] sort ascending/descending by all key columns
" open duplicate sheet with only selected rows
g" open duplicate sheet with all rows
gz" open duplicate sheet with deepcopy of selected rows
Editing Rows and Cells
a za append a blank row/column
ga gza number append number blank rows/columns
d gd delete (cut) current/selected row(s) and move to clipboard
y gy yank (copy) current/all selected row(s) to clipboard
zy gzy yank (copy) contents of current column for current/selected row(s) to clipboard
zd gzd delete (cut) contents of current column for current/selected row(s) and move to
clipboard
p P paste clipboard rows after/before current row
zp gzp set contents of current column for current/selected row(s) to last clipboard value
Y gY yank (copy) current/all selected row(s) to system clipboard (using
options.clipboard_copy_cmd)
zY gzY yank (copy) contents of current column for current/selected row(s) to system clipboard
(using options.clipboard_copy_cmd)
f fill null cells in current column with contents of non-null cells up the current column
e text edit contents of current cell
ge text set contents of current column for selected rows to text
Commands While Editing Input
Enter ^C accept/abort input
^O open external $EDITOR to edit contents
^R reload initial value
^A ^E move to beginning/end of line
^B ^F move back/forward one character
^H ^D delete previous/current character
^T transpose previous and current characters
^U ^K clear from cursor to beginning/end of line
Backspace Del delete previous/current character
Insert toggle insert mode
Up Down set contents to previous/next in history
Tab Shift+Tab autocomplete input (when available)
Data Toolkit
o input open input in VisiData
^S g^S filename save current/all sheet(s) to filename in format determined by extension (default .tsv)
Note: if the format does not support multisave, or the filename ends in a /, a directory
will be created.
z^S filename save key columns and current column only to filename in format determined by extension
(default .tsv)
^D filename.vd save CommandLog to filename.vd file
A number open new blank sheet with number columns
R number pushes sheet with random population subset of number rows
T open new sheet with rows and columns transposed
+ aggregator add aggregator to current column (see Frequency Table)
z+ aggregator display result of aggregator over values in selected rows for current column
Data Visualization
. (dot) plot current numeric column vs key columns. The numeric key column is used for the x-axis;
categorical key column values determine color.
g. plot a graph of all visible numeric columns vs key columns.
If rows on the current sheet represent plottable coordinates (as in .shp or vector .mbtiles sources), .
plots the current row, and g. plots all selected rows (or all rows if none selected).
Canvas-specific Commands
+ - increase/decrease zoom level, centered on cursor
_ (underscore) zoom to fit full extent
s t u select/toggle/unselect rows on source sheet contained within canvas cursor
gs gt gu select/toggle/unselect rows on source sheet visible on screen
d delete rows on source sheet contained within canvas cursor
gd delete rows on source sheet visible on screen
Enter open sheet of source rows contained within canvas cursor
gEnter open sheet of source rows visible on screen
1 - 9 toggle display of layers
^L redraw all pixels on canvas
v toggle show_graph_labels option
mouse scrollwheel zoom in/out of canvas
left click-drag set canvas cursor
right click-drag scroll canvas
Other Commands
Q quit current sheet and remove it from the CommandLog
V view contents of current cell in a new TextSheet
v toggle sheet-specific visibility (text wrap on TextSheet, legends/axes on Graph)
Space longname execute command by its longname
^E view traceback for most recent error
g^E view traceback for most recent errors
z^E view traceback for error in current cell
^L refresh screen
^R reload current sheet
z^R clear cache for current column
^Z suspend VisiData process
^G show cursor position and bounds of current sheet on status line
^V show version and copyright information on status line
^P open Status History
^Y z^Y g^Y open current row/cell/sheet as Python object
^X expr evaluate Python expr and opens result as Python object
z^X expr evaluate Python expr on current row and shows result on status line
g^X stmt execute Python stmt in the global scope
Internal Sheets List
. Directory Sheet browse and modify properties of files in a directory
Metasheets
. Columns Sheet (Shift+C) edit column properties
. Sheets Sheet (Shift+S) jump between sheets or join them together
. Options Sheet (Shift+O) edit configuration options
. Commandlog (Shift+D) modify and save commands for replay
. Error Sheet (^E) view last error
. Status History (^P) view history of status messages
. Threads Sheet (^T) view, cancel, and profile asynchronous threads
Derived Sheets
. Frequency Table (Shift+F) group rows by column value, with aggregations of other columns
. Describe Sheet (Shift+I) view summary statistics for each column
. Pivot Table (Shift+W) group rows by key and summarize current column
. Melted Sheet (Shift+M) unpivot non-key columns into variable/value columns
INTERNAL SHEETS
Directory Sheet
(sheet-specific commands)
Modifying any cell changes the in-memory value. Changes are only applied to the filesystem with ^S
Enter gEnter open current/selected file(s) as new sheet(s)
^O g^O open current/selected file(s) in external $EDITOR
d gd schedule current/selected file(s) for deletion
^R z^R gz^R reload information for all/current/selected file(s), undoing any pending changes
z^S ^S apply all deferred changes to current/all file(s)
METASHEETS
Columns Sheet (Shift+C)
Properties of columns on the source sheet can be changed with standard editing commands (e ge g= Del) on
the Columns Sheet. Multiple aggregators can be set by listing them (separated by spaces) in the
aggregators column. The 'g' commands affect the selected rows, which are the literal columns on the
source sheet.
(global commands)
gC open Columns Sheet for all visible columns on all sheets
(sheet-specific commands)
& add column from concatenating selected source columns
g! gz! toggle/unset selected columns as key columns on source sheet
g+ aggregator add Ar aggregator No to selected source columns
g- (hyphen) hide selected columns on source sheet
g~ g# g% g$ g@ gz#
set type of selected columns on source sheet to str/int/float/currency/date/len
Enter open a Frequency Table sheet grouped by column referenced in current row
Sheets Sheet (Shift+S)
(global commands)
gS open Sheets Graveyard which includes references to closed sheets
(sheet-specific commands)
Enter jump to sheet referenced in current row
a add row to reference a new blank sheet
gC open Columns Sheet with all columns from selected sheets
gI open Describe Sheet with all columns from selected sheets
g^R reload all selected sheets
z^C gz^C abort async threads for current/selected sheets(s)
& jointype merge selected sheets with visible columns from all, keeping rows according to
jointype:
. inner keep only rows which match keys on all sheets
. outer keep all rows from first selected sheet
. full keep all rows from all sheets (union)
. diff keep only rows NOT in all sheets
. append keep all rows from all sheets (concatenation)
. extend copy first selected sheet, keeping all rows and sheet type, and extend with
columns from other sheets
Options Sheet (Shift+O)
(global commands)
Shift+O edit global options (apply to all sheets)
zO edit sheet options (apply to this sheet only)
gO open ~/.visidatarc
(sheet-specific commands)
Enter e edit option at current row
CommandLog (Shift+D)
(global commands)
gD open Directory Sheet for options.visidata_dir (default: ~/.visidata/), which contains
saved commandlogs and macros
(sheet-specific commands)
x replay command in current row
gx replay contents of entire CommandLog
^C abort replay
z^S keystroke save selected rows to macro mapped to keystroke
Macros are saved to .visidata/macro/command-longname.vd. The list of macros is saved
at .visidata/macros.vd (keystroke, filename).
DERIVED SHEETS
Frequency Table (Shift+F)
A Frequency Table groups rows by one or more columns, and includes summary columns for those with
aggregators.
(global commands)
gF open Frequency Table, grouped by all key columns on source sheet
zF open one-line summary for selected rows
(sheet-specific commands)
s t u select/toggle/unselect these entries in source sheet
Enter open sheet of source rows that are grouped in current cell
Describe Sheet (Shift+I)
(global commands)
gI open Describe Sheet for all visible columns on all sheets
(sheet-specific commands)
zs zu select/unselect rows on source sheet that are being described in current cell
! toggle/unset current column as a key column on source sheet
Enter open a Frequency Table sheet grouped on column referenced in current row
zEnter open copy of source sheet with rows described in current cell
Pivot Table (Shift+W)
Set key column(s) and aggregators on column(s) before pressing Shift+W on the column to pivot.
(sheet-specific commands)
Enter open sheet of source rows aggregated in current pivot row
zEnter open sheet of source rows aggregated in current pivot cell
Melted Sheet (Shift+M)
Open melted sheet (unpivot), with key columns retained and all non-key columns reduced to Variable-Value
rows.
(global commands)
gM regex open melted sheet (unpivot), with key columns retained and regex capture groups
determining how the non-key columns will be reduced to Variable-Value rows.
Python Object Sheet (^X ^Y g^Y z^Y)
(sheet-specific commands)
Enter dive further into Python object
e edit contents of current cell
v toggle show/hide for methods and hidden properties
gv zv show/hide methods and hidden properties
COMMANDLINE OPTIONS
-f, --filetype=filetype tsv set loader to use for filetype instead of file extension
-y, --confirm-overwrite=F True overwrite existing files without confirmation
--diff=base None add colorizer for all sheets against base
--encoding=str utf-8 encoding passed to codecs.open
--encoding-errors=str surrogateescape encoding_errors passed to codecs.open
--regex-flags=str I flags to pass to re.compile() [AILMSUX]
--default-width=int 20 default column width
--wrap False wrap text to fit window width on TextSheet
--bulk-select-clear False clear selected rows before new bulk selections
--cmd-after-edit=str go-down command longname to execute after successful edit
--col-cache-size=int 0 max number of cache entries in each cached column
--quitguard False confirm before quitting last sheet
--null-value=NoneType None a value to be counted as null
--force-valid-colnames False clean column names to be valid Python identifiers
--debug False exit on error and display stacktrace
--curses-timeout=int 100 curses timeout in ms
--force-256-colors False use 256 colors even if curses reports fewer
--use-default-colors False curses use default terminal colors
--note-pending=str ⌛ note to display for pending cells
--note-format-exc=str ? cell note for an exception during formatting
--note-getter-exc=str ! cell note for an exception during computation
--note-type-exc=str ! cell note for an exception during type conversion
--note-unknown-type=str cell note for unknown types in anytype column
--scroll-incr=int 3 amount to scroll with scrollwheel
--skip=int 0 skip first N lines of text input
--confirm-overwrite=bool True whether to prompt for overwrite confirmation on save
--safe-error=str #ERR error string to use while saving
--header=int 1 parse first N rows of certain formats as column names
--delimiter=str delimiter to use for tsv filetype
--filetype=str specify file type
--save-filetype=str tsv specify default file type to save as
--tsv-safe-newline=str replacement for tab character when saving to tsv
--tsv-safe-tab=str replacement for newline character when saving to tsv
--clipboard-copy-cmd=str command to copy stdin to system clipboard
--visibility=int 0 visibility level (0=low, 1=high)
--min-memory-mb=int 0 minimum memory to continue loading and async processing
--replay-wait=float 0.0 time to wait between replayed commands, in seconds
--replay-movement False insert movements during replay
--visidata-dir=str ~/.visidata/ directory to load and store macros
--rowkey-prefix=str キ string prefix for rowkey in the cmdlog
--cmdlog-histfile=str file to autorecord each cmdlog action to
--regex-maxsplit=int 0 maxsplit to pass to regex.split
--show-graph-labels=bool True show axes and legend on graph
--plot-colors=str list of distinct colors to use for plotting distinct
objects
--zoom-incr=float 2.0 amount to multiply current zoomlevel when zooming
--motd-url=str source of randomized startup messages
--profile=str filename to save binary profiling data
--csv-dialect=str excel dialect passed to csv.reader
--csv-delimiter=str , delimiter passed to csv.reader
--csv-quotechar=str " quotechar passed to csv.reader
--csv-skipinitialspace=bool True skipinitialspace passed to csv.reader
--csv-escapechar=NoneType None escapechar passed to csv.reader
--safety-first False sanitize input/output to handle edge cases, with a
performance cost
--json-indent=NoneType None indent to use when saving json
--fixed-rows=int 1000 number of rows to check for fixed width columns
--pcap-internet=str n (y/s/n) if save_dot includes all internet hosts
separately (y), combined (s), or does not include the
internet (n)
--graphviz-edge-labels=bool True whether to include edge labels on graphviz diagrams
DISPLAY OPTIONS
Display options can only be set via the “Options Sheet or a .visidatarc (see “FILES).””
disp_note_none ⌀ visible contents of a cell whose value is None
disp_truncator … indicator that the contents are only partially visible
disp_oddspace · displayable character for odd whitespace
disp_unprintable . substitute character for unprintables
disp_column_sep | separator between columns
disp_keycol_sep ‖ separator between key columns and rest of columns
disp_status_fmt {sheet.name}| status line prefix
disp_lstatus_max 0 maximum length of left status line
disp_status_sep | separator between statuses
disp_edit_fill _ edit field fill character
disp_more_left < header note indicating more columns to the left
disp_more_right > header note indicating more columns to the right
disp_error_val displayed contents for computation exception
disp_ambig_width 1 width to use for unicode chars marked ambiguous
color_default normal the default color
color_default_hdr bold underline color of the column headers
color_current_row reverse color of the cursor row
color_current_col bold color of the cursor column
color_current_hdr bold reverse underline
color of the header for the cursor column
color_column_sep 246 blue color of column separators
color_key_col 81 cyan color of key columns
color_hidden_col 8 color of hidden columns on metasheets
color_selected_row 215 yellow color of selected rows
color_keystrokes white color of input keystrokes on status line
color_status bold status line color
color_error red error message color
color_warning yellow warning message color
color_edit_cell normal cell color to use when editing cell
disp_pending string to display in pending cells
color_note_pending bold magenta color of note in pending cells
color_note_type 226 yellow cell note for numeric types in anytype columns
disp_date_fmt %Y-%m-%d default fmtstr to strftime for date values
color_change_pending reverse yellow color for file attributes pending modification
color_delete_pending red color for files pending delete
disp_histogram * histogram element character
disp_histolen 50 width of histogram column
color_working green color of system running smoothly
disp_replay_play ▶ status indicator for active replay
disp_replay_pause ‖ status indicator for paused replay
color_status_replay green color of replay status indicator
disp_pixel_random False randomly choose attr from set of pixels instead of most common
color_graph_hidden 238 blue color of legend for hidden attribute
color_graph_selected bold color of selected graph points
color_graph_axis bold color for graph axis labels
color_diff red color of values different from --diff source
color_diff_add yellow color of rows/columns added to --diff source
EXAMPLES
vd foo.tsv
open the file foo.tsv in the current directory
vd -f sqlite bar.db
open the file bar.db as a sqlite database
vd -b countries.fixed -o countries.tsv
convert countries.fixed (in fixed width format) to countries.tsv (in tsv format)
vd postgres://username:password@hostname:port/database
open a connection to the given postgres database
vd --play tests/pivot.vd --replay-wait 1 --output tests/pivot.tsv
replay tests/pivot.vd, waiting 1 second between commands, and output the final sheet to test/pivot.tsv
ls -l | vd -f fixed --skip 1 --header 0
parse the output of ls -l into usable data
FILES
At the start of every session, VisiData looks for $HOME/.visidatarc, and calls Python exec() on its
contents if it exists. For example:
options.min_memory_mb=100 # stop processing without 100MB free
bindkey('0', 'go-leftmost') # alias '0' to move to first column, like vim
def median(values):
L = sorted(values)
return L[len(L)//2]
aggregator('median', median)
Functions defined in .visidatarc are available in python expressions (e.g. in derived columns).
SUPPORTED SOURCES
These are the supported sources:
tsv (tab-separated value)
Plain and simple. VisiData writes tsv format by default. See the --delimiter option.
csv (comma-separated value)
.csv files are a scourge upon the earth, and still regrettably common.
See the --csv-dialect, --csv-delimiter, --csv-quotechar, and --csv-skipinitialspace options.
Accepted dialects are excel-tab, unix, and excel.
fixed (fixed width text)
Columns are autodetected from the first 1000 rows (adjustable with --fixed-rows).
json (single object) and jsonl (one object per line).
Cells containing lists (e.g. [3]) or dicts ({3}) can be expanded into new columns with ( and
unexpanded with ).
yaml/yml (requires PyYAML)
pcap (requires xpkt, dnslib)
View and investigate captured network traffic in a tabular format.
png (requires pypng)
Pixels can be edited and saved in data form. Images can be plotted with . (dot).
The following URL schemes are supported:
http (requires requests); can be used as transport for with another filetype
postgres (requires psycopg2)
The following sources may include multiple tables. The initial sheet is the table directory; Enter loads
the entire table into memory.
sqlite
xlsx (requires openpyxl)
xls (requires xlrd)
hdf5 (requires h5py)
ttf/otf (requires fonttools)
mbtiles (requires mapbox-vector-tile)
htm/html (requires lxml)
xml (requires lxml)
v show only columns in current row attributes
za add column for xml attributes
xpt (SAS; requires xport)
sas7bdat (SAS; requires sas7bdat)
sav (SPSS; requires savReaderWriter)
dta (Stata; requires pandas)
shp (requires pyshp)
In addition, .zip, .gz, .bz2, and .xz files are decompressed on the fly.
VisiData has an adapter for pandas. To load a file format which is supported by pandas, pass -f pandas
data.foo. This will call pandas.read_foo().
For example, vd -f pandas data.parquet loads a parquet file. Note that when using the pandas loader, the
.fileformat file extension is mandatory
SUPPORTED OUTPUT FORMATS
These are the supported savers:
tsv (tab-separated value)
csv (comma-separated value)
json (one object with all rows)
All expanded subcolumns must be closed (with )) to retain the same structure.
.shp files can be saved as geoJSON.
md (org-mode compatible markdown table)
htm/html (requires lxml)
png (requires pypng)
Multisave is supported by html, md, and txt; g^S will save all sheets into a single output file.
AUTHOR
VisiData was made by Saul Pwanson <vd@saul.pw>.
Linux/MacOS January 12, 2019 vd(1)