An Introduction to VisiData

VisiData is a free, open-source tool that lets you quickly open, explore, summarize, and analyze datasets in your computer’s terminal. VisiData works with CSV files, Excel spreadsheets, SQL databases, and many other data sources. The interface looks like this:

  File  Edit  View  Column  Row  Data  Plot  System  Help     | VisiData 3.0.2 | Alt+H for help men
 OPERATOR           ║↓count♯│ percent%│ histogram                             ~║                   
 UNKNOWN            ║ 23076 │   31.42 │ ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ ║
 SOUTHWEST AIRLINES ║  7752 │   10.55 │ ■■■■■■■■■■■■                           ║
 BUSINESS           ║  5868 │    7.99 │ ■■■■■■■■■                              ║
 AMERICAN AIRLINES  ║  4337 │    5.90 │ ■■■■■■■                                ║
 DELTA AIR LINES    ║  2817 │    3.84 │ ■■■■                                   ║
 FEDEX EXPRESS      ║  2709 │    3.69 │ ■■■■                                   ║
 UNITED AIRLINES    ║  2194 │    2.99 │ ■■■                                    ║
 US AIRWAYS         ║  1885 │    2.57 │ ■■■                                    ║
 UPS AIRLINES       ║  1773 │    2.41 │ ■■                                     ║
 SKYWEST AIRLINES   ║  1769 │    2.41 │ ■■                                     ║
 JETBLUE AIRWAYS    ║  1740 │    2.37 │ ■■                                     ║
 EXPRESSJET AIRLINES║  1347 │    1.83 │ ■■                                     ║
 AMERICAN EAGLE AIR…║  1041 │    1.42 │ ■                                      ║
 ENVOY AIR          ║   883 │    1.20 │ ■                                      ║
 ALASKA AIRLINES    ║   835 │    1.14 │ ■                                      ║
 REPUBLIC AIRLINES  ║   804 │    1.09 │ ■                                      ║
 MESA AIRLINES      ║   693 │    0.94 │ ■                                      ║
 AIR WISCONSIN AIRL…║   623 │    0.85 │ ■                                      ║
 PSA AIRLINES       ║   577 │    0.79 │                                        ║
 PRIVATELY OWNED    ║   516 │    0.70 │                                        ║
 PHI INC            ║   491 │    0.67 │                                        ║
2› faa-wildlife-strikes_OPERATOR_freq|                                  Shift+F           282 bins 

Very quickly, VisiData has become the tool I reach for first when I encounter a new dataset. I think you might enjoy it, too.

About This Tutorial

Note

This tutorial is not officially affiliated with VisiData, and is not intended as a comprehensive reference. You can learn more about VisiData from these official sources:

• VisiData.org
• VisiData’s GitHub repository
• Saul Pwanson’s Patreon page
• Saul Pwanson’s case studies on YouTube

Tutorial Structure

This tutorial is divided into five sections:

Section	Description	Status
The Big Picture	If you read nothing else …	Draft complete
Basic Usage	All you need to know to get started	Draft complete
Intermediate Usage	Some of the handiest power-features	Draft complete
Advanced Usage	How to bend VisiData to your whims	Four chapters drafted
Practical Examples	Step-by-step walkthroughs	Two examples drafted

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Tutorial Status

Tutorial last updated	2024-03-08
VisiData version	3.0.2

About the author

Jeremy Singer-Vine is a journalist, computer programmer, and data editor based in New York City. From 2014 until early 2022, he served as the founding data editor for BuzzFeed News. He also publishes Data Is Plural, a weekly newsletter of useful/curious datasets.

Feedback / questions / corrections?

File an issue on GitHub or email the author at jsvine@gmail.com.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to the following people for their feedback, suggestions, and fixes: Saul Pwanson, Anja Kefala, John Templon, Scott Pham, Andrea Borruso, Felix Rosencrantz, Ram Rachum, Ezequiel Garzon, Joseph Reagle, David Wales, @rschwiebert, Martin Häcker.