how to work with csv files in vim

I am probably a little bit later answering that question, but for completeness I'll answer anyway. I have made the csv plugin that should make it possible to do what you want.

Among others, it allows:

• Display on which column the cursor is as well as number of columns
• Search for text within a column using :SearchInColumn command
• Highlight the column on which the cursor is using :HiColumn command
• Visually arrange all columns using :ArrangeColumn command
• Delete a Column using :DeleteColumn command
• Display a vertical or horizontal header line using :Header or :VHeader command
• Sort a Column using :Sort command
• Copy Column to register using :Column command
• Move a column behind another column using :MoveCol command
• Calculate the Sum of all values within a column using :SumCol command (you can also define your own custom aggregate functions)
• Move through the columns using the normal mode commands (W forwards, H backwards, K upwards, J downwards)
• sets up a nice syntax highlighting, concealing the delimiter, if your Vim supports it

I've tried Christian's csv plugin, and it is useful for quick looks at csv files, especially when you need to look at many different files.

However, when I'm going to be looking at the same csv file more than a few times, I import the file into sqlite3, which makes further analysis much faster and easier to perform.

For instance, if my file looks like this:

file.csv:
field1name, field2name, field3name
field1data, field2data, field3data
field1data, field2data, field3data

I create a new sqlite db (from the command line):

commandprompt> sqlite3 mynew.db

Then create a table in the db to import the file into:

sqlite> create table mytable (field1name, field2name, field3name);
sqlite> .mode csv
sqlite> .headers ON
sqlite> .separator ,
sqlite> .import file.csv mytable

Now the new table 'mytable' contains the data from the file, but the first row is storing the header, which you don't typically want, so you need to delete it (use single quotes around the field value; if you use double quotes you'll delete all rows):

sqlite> delete from mytable where field1name = 'field1name';

Now you can easily look at the data, filter by complex formulas, sort by multiple fields, etc.

sqlite> select * from mytable limit 30;

(Sorry this turned into a sqlite tutorial but it seems like every time that I don't import into sqlite, I end up spending much more time using vim/less/grep/sort/cut than I would have had I just imported in the first place).

You probably want to look at sc as an alternative.. Have a look at this linux journal page

There's also exist rainbow_csv vim plugin. It will highlight csv/tsv file columns in different "rainbow" colors and will allow you to write SQL-like SELECT and UPDATE queries using Python or JavaScript expressions.