CSV Viewer
Look inside a CSV file without a spreadsheet program. Drop the file to see it as a clean table that you can sort by any column, filter with a search box and page through, however large it is.
- Runs in your browser
- No sign-up
- Free to use
Or paste CSV text
Column summary
How to use CSV Viewer
- Drop a CSV, TSV or Excel file, or paste CSV text.
- Check that the columns are split correctly; change the separator if needed.
- Click a column heading to sort, or type in the filter box to show matching rows only.
- Open the column summary for types, empty cells and value ranges, or download the filtered view.
CSV Viewer features
Sortable columns
Click a heading to sort ascending, again for descending. Numbers sort as numbers, text as text.
Instant filter
Type any text to keep only the rows that contain it.
Built for large files
Rows are shown page by page, so files with hundreds of thousands of rows stay responsive.
Separator and encoding detection
Comma, semicolon, tab and pipe are recognised, as are UTF-8, UTF-16 and Windows-1252.
Column summary
Type, filled and empty counts, unique values and the range of numeric columns.
Nothing is uploaded
The file is read by your browser and never leaves your device.
When to use CSV Viewer
- Checking an export before importing it into another system.
- Reading a CSV on a computer or phone without Excel.
- Finding a particular record in a large data file.
- Getting a quick profile of a data set: how many rows, which columns are incomplete.
CSV Viewer FAQ
How large a file can I open?
Files up to 100 MB are accepted. Because parsing happens in your browser, the practical limit depends on the memory of your device; a few hundred thousand rows are comfortable on a typical laptop. Only the current page is drawn, so scrolling stays smooth.
Why does my file show everything in one column?
The separator was not recognised, which can happen with unusual files. Choose the right one from the separator list. If the file uses another character entirely, convert it first with a text editor's replace function.
Does the viewer change my file?
No. The file is only read. Sorting and filtering affect what is displayed, and the download button saves the current view as a new CSV file.
Why open a CSV here instead of in Excel?
Excel reinterprets values when it opens a CSV: leading zeros vanish, long numbers are rounded and some text becomes dates. This viewer shows every value exactly as it is stored, which is what you want when checking data.
Can it open Excel files too?
Yes. XLSX, XLS and ODS files are accepted, with a sheet selector for workbooks that contain several sheets.
How does sorting treat empty cells and mixed columns?
Empty cells are placed at the end in both directions. When two values are both numbers they are compared numerically, otherwise as text, using natural ordering so that “item 2” comes before “item 10”.
Reading raw data as it really is
CSV files are everywhere: exports from shops and banks, downloads from analytics tools, dumps from databases. Opened in a text editor they are hard to read, since columns do not line up and long lines wrap. Opened in a spreadsheet they are easy to read, though the spreadsheet silently alters them on the way in. A dedicated viewer sits in between. It lays the data out as a table and leaves every value untouched.
That fidelity matters when the purpose is checking. If an import into another system failed on row 4,812, you need to see what is really in that row: whether a field contains a stray quotation mark, whether the postcode still has its leading zero, whether the number of columns matches the header. A program that tidies values while opening the file hides exactly the problems you are looking for.
Sorting and filtering turn the viewer into a simple analysis tool. Sorting a numeric column reveals outliers at either end. Sorting a text column brings near-duplicates next to each other. The filter finds every row that mentions a customer, a product code or an error message. The column summary answers the first questions about any unfamiliar data set: which columns are numeric, how complete each one is and how many distinct values it holds.
Large files are handled by drawing only one page of rows at a time. The whole file is parsed into memory once; after that, sorting a few hundred thousand rows takes a moment and moving between pages is instant.