I have a CSV file with more than 20,000 columns that I would like to view in a spreadheet. HowTo

Question

My CSV file is not that large (10 to 20 mb), but the number of columns is extraordinary (17,000 and counting). I'm manipulating the file with Perl, and that seems to be suiting my purposes just fine.

The thing is, I like to view my file in a spreadsheet every once in awhile. Just to do some word searches and other basic things. It's not really a big deal, I just like to look at it and make sure it is being built properly. I've been using Excel to do this, but now that I've surpassed the maximum number of columns that Excel supports, I am at a loss trying to open my file as a spreadsheet.

Anyone know of a program that can handle that many columns?

Answer 1

This is a crazy number of columns. Would it not take an hour to scroll horizontally to the last column? lol

I have to guess there is a better way to handle your data overall. IT sounds like your file is growing and even a CSV file will get hard to work with when it reaches 200 rows with 200 columns. Importing or exporting using PHP might require 200 x 200 database queries which is a huge amount in a short time. Your talking about far more. So what happens in future with your file and data, where are you going with this in the long run?

I would consider getting it into a MySQL database with a simple PHP interface for browsing the data. There are impressive jQuery UI scripts for displaying data in tables that are easier to work with than CSV file or spreadsheet.