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Table View

Table view shows a CSV or TSV file as rows and columns, with the first row as the column headers. It reads the file as you scroll, so it works for files of any size. An NDJSON file gets a Table view too, after you choose its columns. See NDJSON view.

Open a file in Table view

Section titled “Open a file in Table view”

Vaste decides from the file name extension whether a file can open as a table:

  • A .csv file is checked for a delimiter: comma, tab, semicolon, or pipe. If none fits, the file opens as plain text.
  • A .tsv or .tab file is always read as tab-separated.
  • A file with any other extension opens as text, even when its content is comma-separated. To read it as a table, choose a delimiter in CSV dialect.

CSV and TSV files open in Table view. To switch between Table view and Text view, press Ctrl + T or select Table in the view switcher. Selecting Table while Table view is showing returns to Text view.

For the full detection rules, see Supported formats.

What the table shows

Section titled “What the table shows”

The header row shows each column’s name, with a glyph for the type of its values:

Glyph Type
123 Whole numbers
.0 Numbers with decimals
TF true / false, yes / no, or 1 / 0 values
Aa Text
— Empty: every value in the column is empty

Vaste picks the type from the first 1,000 data rows. A column of 0 and 1 values counts as whole numbers. Hover over a header to see the column’s name and type, and its null and distinct counts after you have opened its statistics.

The # column on the left numbers the rows in the order the table shows them. Under a filter or a sort, the numbers start again from 1, so they are positions in the current view, not record numbers in the file.

Empty cells have a tinted background. A value too long for its column ends with …: hover over the cell to see the full value. A file with more than 1,000 columns shows the first 1,000, with the message Only the first 1,000 columns are shown.

Move around and copy

Section titled “Move around and copy”

Click a cell to make it the active cell. A bar on the left edge marks its row.

To select several rows, click the first row, then hold Shift and click the last one, or press Shift + Up or Shift + Down. The selected rows are highlighted. A click without Shift clears the selection.

Key Action
Left, Right Move the active cell to the previous or next column
Up, Down Move the active cell up or down a row, or scroll when no cell is active
Shift + Up, Shift + Down Add the row above or below to the selection
Page Up, Page Down Scroll one screen
Home, End Go to the first or last row
Enter Open the active cell’s value. See Columns and record view
Alt + Enter Open the active row in Record view
Esc Close an open menu, clear the selected rows, or clear the active row
Ctrl + C Copy the selected rows as TSV with a header line, or else the active cell, or the whole row when no cell is active

Double-click a cell to open its value. Right-click a row for the row menu, and right-click a column header for the column menu. See Columns and record view.

The table state bar

Section titled “The table state bar”

When you filter, sort, hide columns, or analyze the table, a bar appears above the column headers. It shows how many rows are visible, for example 1,204 of 250,000 rows, and a chip for each part of the current view:

  • A chip for each column filter, with a button to remove it.
  • A chip for the sort, with a button to clear it.
  • N hidden columns, with Show all.
  • The ragged and duplicate row counts from Data quality.

Clear filters removes every filter. Reset view removes the filters and the sort, and also restores hidden, moved, and renamed columns.

The status bar in Table view

Section titled “The status bar in Table view”

The status bar shows Row N of M, where N is the top row on screen. While a filter is active, it also shows how many rows match, for example 1,204 of 250,000 rows.

The dialect item shows how Vaste splits the file, for example , · " · header. Select it to change the delimiter, quote, or header row. See CSV dialect.

Rows that do not match the header

Section titled “Rows that do not match the header”

Table view shows as many columns as the header row has. When a row has more fields than the header, the extra fields are not shown. When it has fewer, the missing cells are empty. A blank line shows as an empty row. To find these rows, use Data quality.

A quoted value can contain line breaks. Table view shows such a value in one cell, so a row can span several lines of the file.

Search in Table view

Section titled “Search in Table view”

The search panel works in Table view. Moving to a match scrolls to the row that holds it and places it in the middle of the table. If a column filter hides the row, Vaste shows Match is hidden by the column filter. See Searching a file.

What Vaste keeps and clears

Section titled “What Vaste keeps and clears”

Vaste keeps the column order, hidden columns, and renamed columns for each file, and restores them the next time you open it. Column widths are not kept.

These actions clear the filters, the sort, and the active cell:

  • Switching to another view.
  • Reloading the file. See Live reload.
  • Reopening the file with another encoding.
  • Changing the CSV dialect or the header row.

When you switch to another view and back, Table view returns to the row that was at the top.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”