CLEVERCSV(1)

📦
version 0.8.5 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 CLEVERCSV(1) — the Clevercsv Manual, bestie edition 💖

okay so. this is clevercsv, and it lives in the Clevercsv manual (section 1, obviously, we're those girls). it's a command line tool, it's your new bestie for messy CSVs, and honestly? the way it carries itself. iconic.

✨ NAME ✨

clevercsv — the CleverCSV command line tool 🌸

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

clevercsv [-h | --help] [-V | --version] [-v | --verbose] <command ...>

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so CleverCSV is a Python library and a command line tool for dealing with messy CSV files. like, chaos-level messy. the kind where you open a file and immediately need to lie down. 🙈

it's made up of a bunch of commands you can use to analyze, explore, or standardize a messy CSV file. pick your fighter. 💅

want more help and docs? they're online, ready and waiting:

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -h, --help — shows this help message and then dips out 💨
  • -V, --version — shows the version and exits, no small talk
  • -v, --verbose — turns on verbose mode, so it tells you everything ✨

✨ COMMANDS ✨

here's the whole roster of commands that come with CleverCSV. collect them all 🫶

  • clevercsv-code(1) — spits out Python code to import a given CSV file 🌈
  • clevercsv-detect(1) — detects the dialect of a CSV file 🔍
  • clevercsv-explore(1) — infers the dialect and opens the file in an interactive Python session 🐍
  • clevercsv-standardize(1) — converts a messy CSV file into one that follows RFC-4180 ✨
  • clevercsv-view(1) — detects the dialect and opens the CSV file using TabView 👑

✨ AUTHORS ✨

the CleverCSV package was originally written by Gerrit van den Burg, and it came out of scientific research on wrangling messy CSV files by Gerrit van den Burg, Alfredo Nazabal, and Charles Sutton. so yes, this is academic baddie energy. 🎀

this research was conducted at and supported by The Alan Turing Institute. and CleverCSV has since benefitted from a number of open-source contributors on GitHub — the group chat really came through, fr fr. 💜

✨ REPORTING BUGS ✨

if you encounter an issue in CleverCSV, please open an issue or submit a pull request at:

https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/CleverCSV

and please don't hesitate — you're literally helping to make this project better for everyone. you're not being annoying, you're being a main character. 👑

✨ NOTES ✨

  1. CleverCSV GitHub repository — https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/CleverCSV
  2. CleverCSV documentation — https://clevercsv.readthedocs.io
  3. Wrangling Messy CSV Files by Detecting Row and Type Patterns:
https://gertjanvandenburg.com/papers/VandenBurg_Nazabal_Sutton_-_Wrangling_Messy_CSV_Files_by_Detecting_Row_and_Type_Patterns_2019.pdf

and that's the page, bestie. this was Clevercsv 0.8.5, dated 2026-05-11, manual section CLEVERCSV(1) — no cap, that's the whole thing. slay, go standardize something messy. 💖✨🦋

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