CSV Viewer Convert
Open a CSV or TSV file as a proper table you can search, sort and scroll, without a spreadsheet app.
CSV Viewer is a free online tool that open a CSV or TSV file as a proper table you can search, sort and scroll, without a spreadsheet app. It runs entirely in your web browser using plain JavaScript, so files are processed on your own device and never uploaded to a server. There is no sign-up, no file size limit imposed by the site, no watermark and no paid tier.
- Price
- Free: no account, no quota, no watermark
- Category
- Convert
- Where it runs
- In your browser, on your device
- Files uploaded
- None
- Technology
- plain JavaScript
- Settings
- 2
- Works offline
- Yes, after the first visit
About CSV Viewer
A CSV file opened in a text editor is a wall of commas. Opened in Excel it is quietly reformatted: leading zeros vanish, long numbers turn into scientific notation and anything that looks like a date becomes one. This shows the file as it is, in a grid with row numbers, sticky headers, search across every cell and click-to-sort on any column. The parser follows RFC 4180, so quoted fields, embedded commas, line breaks inside quotes and doubled quote characters all come through intact, and the delimiter is detected from the first line unless you set it. Rows render in pages of 200 as you scroll, so large exports stay responsive.
How to use it
- Drop a .csv, .tsv or .txt file on the page, or paste the data into the box.
- Check the detected delimiter and change it if the guess is wrong.
- Search, and click a column header to sort by it. Click again to reverse, a third time to reset.
- Download a cleaned-up copy as CSV, or the same rows as JSON.
The 2 settings
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Delimiter | Choose from 5: Detect automatically, Comma, Semicolon, Tab, Pipe. | Detect automatically |
| First row holds the column names | On or off. When on, the first row becomes the column headings and is left out of sorting and the row count. | On |
Under the hood
| Runs on | plain JavaScript: runs the whole thing |
| Controls | Delimiter, First row holds the column names |
Questions
How does delimiter detection work?
It counts commas, semicolons, tabs and pipes in the first non-empty line and picks whichever appears most. That handles the common European semicolon export correctly. Set it explicitly if your data contains a lot of one character inside quoted fields.
Are quoted fields with commas and line breaks handled?
Yes. The parser follows RFC 4180: quoted fields may contain the delimiter, line breaks and doubled quotes ("") as an escaped quote character. A field that spans several lines is shown as one cell.
Why is the row count different from Excel?
Completely empty lines are dropped, and the header row is not counted as data when "First row holds the column names" is on. Excel also counts the header and any blank rows it decided to keep.
Some rows have fewer cells than others. Is the file broken?
Not necessarily. Many exporters leave trailing empty fields off a line. The tool tells you how many rows are shorter than the widest one and shows the missing cells as empty; nothing is dropped.
Does sorting change my file?
No. Sorting only reorders what is on screen. "Download as clean CSV" writes the rows in their original order, with consistent quoting and one field per column.
How large a file can it open?
There is no site limit. The whole file is parsed in your device's memory and only 200 rows are drawn at a time, so files with hundreds of thousands of rows open in a second or two on a laptop.
Can I use it full screen, or keep a copy offline?
Yes to both. "Full screen" above the tool fills the whole screen (Esc leaves it). "Save as HTML" writes this one tool to a single self-contained file that opens from your own disk without a connection. For everything at once there is a desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux with all 312 tools inside it.