SmoothCSV: the Ultimate CSV editor

I’m just a user who still has to manipulate CSV from time to time.

I’ve struggled to find a decent CSV editor for macOS. There’s Modern CSV but it feels very far from a native experience. Some time ago I tried Easy CSV Editor, according to files in my iCloud Drive, but I did not stick with it for some reason. Maybe it’s improved since then, but there now being no demo or trial is a barrier to me trying it again.

SmoothCSV can best be described as “VSCode for CSV”, allowing quick loading of huge files, complex transforms, tons of functions with quick command palette access, and even SQL querying of the data! It’s not quite fully native on macOS but feels more native than Modern CSV and even VScode that I compared it to.

It’s apparently been in development in one form or another for 15 years, and it shows. I just sent the developer some coffee money, because an app of this quality being free is almost a crime. I much prefer the well-considered user interface of SmoothCSV over the competition and I’ve now uninstalled Modern CSV.

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Thanks Matt. I was also not very happy with Modern CSV’s interaction model, so it’s nice to have an alternative to examine.

Please do let us know how you get on with this

There are two TidBITS articles about Modern CSV:

Right! I used that for a few years, until trying SmoothCSV. Which do you prefer @nello?

I posted the TidBITS articles about Modern CSV just in case other readers were interested in more information about it.

Personally, I haven’t even tried a CSV editor yet because I almost never edit such files.

Always good to have options. I took a quick look, and unless I’m missing something, it doesn’t appear that SmoothCSV does many of the things I do in Modern CSV. For instance:

  • It can sort, but it requires choosing a menu command rather than double-clicking a column header.
  • There’s no way to add characters to selected cells or trim content from those cells.
  • Column can be moved, but not by dragging
  • I don’t see any way to join or split columns.

That’s not necessarily a criticism, just that for what I’m doing, Modern CSV seems more capable.

(But yeah, its interface is from the moon.)

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Good points one and all!

edit: all now filed as feature requests

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3.2.0 released

  • It can sort, but it requires choosing a menu command rather than double-clicking a column header.

Improved, but still not quite what you want. Dev has their reasons to not allow column header clicking …at least for now.

  • There’s no way to add characters to selected cells or trim content from those cells.

Still only possible using Search & Replace.

  • Column can be moved, but not by dragging

Added

  • I don’t see any way to join or split columns.

Added

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Dark mode recently added.

3.7.1 I think is the latest version.

That’s 5 point releases in the last 3 months.

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Dev is still adding new features weekly!

  • 10 point releases since my last message.