IntelliJ IDEA 2023.3 Help

Edit DSV files as tables

Enable the Database Tools and SQL plugin

This functionality relies on the Database Tools and SQL plugin, which is bundled and enabled in IntelliJ IDEA by default. If the relevant features aren't available, make sure that you didn't disable the plugin.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and then select Plugins.

  2. Open the Installed tab, find the Database Tools and SQL plugin, and select the checkbox next to the plugin name.

IntelliJ IDEA lets you edit files with delimiter-separated values (CSV, TSV, and other delimiter-separated formats) as tables.

For these files, a Data tab is available in the lower left corner of text editor. In the Data tab, you can edit the data in data editor. For full information about data editor, refer to Data editor and viewer.

Data editor tab in a delimiter-separated values file editor

The data editor is available if the following conditions are satisfied:

  • You are using IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition. The corresponding functionality is not available in the Community Edition.

  • The bundled Database Tools and SQL plugin is enabled. For more information, refer to Install plugins.

  • The filename extension is associated with the text file type. For more information, refer to File type associations.

To switch between text and table views, click the Text and Data tabs in the lower left corner of the editor.

Switch between Text and Data views

Open DSV file in the table view

  1. Right-click inside a delimited text file and then click Edit as Table. Alternatively, you can click the Edit as Table icon in the editor.

  2. In the Configure CSV Format for <file_name> dialog that opens, specify format settings and click OK.

    The dialog has three predefined formats (CSV, TSV, and Pipe-separated) and lets you create a custom format. For example, you may require comma-separated values with semicolons as row separators.

    Once you confirm the format settings, the Data tab will present data in a table format correspondingly. If you want to use different format settings, repeat the previous procedure and open the data editor again.

For more information about the Configure CSV Format for <file_name> dialog, refer to the reference.

Sort data

  • Click the column header to toggle between sorting directions: ascending, descending, and initial unsorted state.

    The column sorting is not stacked by default. It means that if you click a column name to sort data by, the sorting based on other columns will be cleared. If you prefer to use the stacked sorting, click a column name while pressing Alt.

    State

    Description

    No sorting

    Indicates that the data is not sorted in this column. The initial state of the sorting marker.

    Ascending order

    The data is sorted in the ascending order.

    Descending order

    The data is sorted in the descending order.

    Sorting level

    The number to the right of the marker (1 on the picture) is the sorting level. You can sort by more than one column. In such cases, different columns will have different sorting levels.

Hide columns

  • Right-click the column header and then click Hide Column.

    To see the list of all columns, right-click any column header and then click Columns List. Names of hidden columns are shown struck through. To toggle between hidden and shown state of a column, select it in the list and press Space.

Enable coding assistance

  • Right-click the column header or individual cell and then click Set Highlighting Language to select a language and provide coding assistance when modifying the contents.

Transpose a table

  • Click the View as button (the View as button) on the toolbar, and select Transpose.

  • To make this mode a default for tables and views, open settings by pressing Ctrl+Alt+S and navigate to Tools | Database | Data Editor and Viewer. From the Automatically transpose tables list, select Always. When this option is enabled, query results are not transposed.

Extract data

If you need to use the data from the table elsewhere, IntelliJ IDEA provides several possibilities to copy or save it.

IntelliJ IDEA uses data extractors to export data in various formats to a file or the clipboard. Each time you export or copy data, the copied data format is defined by the selected data extractor.

Export data to file or clipboard

  1. To export full data to a file, open a table and click the Export Data icon (the Export Data icon) on the toolbar. Configure the export settings and click Export to File.

  2. To export full data to the clipboard, open a table and click the Export Data icon (the Export Data icon) on the toolbar. Configure the export settings and click Export Table to Clipboard.

    Alternatively, right-click a cell and select Export Table to Clipboard. The data will be exported using currently selected data extractor.

    In contrast to the Export Table to Clipboard action, the Copy Ctrl+C action only copies the selection of rows. To copy all the rows, click a cell, press Ctrl+A and then Ctrl+C.

Import data to another database

  1. Click the Import to Database button (the Import to Database icon) on the toolbar.

  2. Specify the database, target schema (to create a new table with the exported data) or table (to add exported data to an existing table).

  3. Configure the data mapping and settings for the target table.

    Import data to another database

Reference

Configure CSV Format for <file_name> dialog

This dialog opens when you select the Edit as Table command in the editor when viewing a file with delimiter-separated values.

This dialog contains the settings for converting delimiter-separated values (for example, CSV, TSV) into table data.

When you change settings, the preview changes correspondingly.

Item

Description

Formats

Select a template that successfully converts the file data into a table. You can change settings of predefined templates or add a new template. To add a template, click Add Format button (the Add Format icon).

Use the Add Format (), Remove Format (), Up () and Down () buttons to create, delete and reorder the formats; Copy Format (the Copy Format icon) to create a copy of the selected format.

Value separator

Select or type the character that you want to use as a separator for values.

Row separator

Select or type the character that you want to use as a separator for rows.

Null value text

Select or type the text that you want to use if a cell contains the NULL value.

Add row prefix/suffix

Click the link and type a row prefix and suffix. Prefix and suffix are character sequences which in addition to the row separator indicate the beginning and end of a row.

Quotation

Each line in the area under Quotation is a quotation pattern. A quotation pattern includes:

  • Left: a quotation character that is inserted before a value.

  • Right: a quotation character that is inserted after a value.

  • Escape: an escape method or character for the cases when the quotation character is part of a value. The <duplicate> value means that if a quotation character occurs within a value, it is doubled. You can specify your own escape character.

If there is more than one pattern, the first pattern is used.

Use the Add (), Remove (), Up () and Down () buttons to create, delete and reorder the patterns.

Quote values

Select when you want to enclose values within quotation characters.

  • Never: do not quote values.

  • When needed: quote a value if it contains the value or the row separator.

  • Always: quote all the values.

Trim whitespaces

Ignore or remove whitespace characters. If this checkbox is cleared, the whitespace characters are treated as parts of the corresponding values.

First row is header

Treat the first row as a row that contains column names.

First column is header

Treat the first column as a column that contains row names.

Last modified: 19 March 2024