{"slug": "xan", "name": "xan", "category": "terminal", "category_name": "Terminal and shell", "description": "", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 4.311, "rising": -1.64, "first": "2026-01-18", "latest": "2026-04-29", "why": "It's the best tool there is for reading and analyzing csv files", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "It's the best tool there is for reading and analyzing csv files", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/medialab/xan", "official_url": "https://github.com/medialab/xan", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["xan"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 766758272, "item_id": 47922392, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47922392", "by": "rpassos", "date": "2026-04-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's the best tool there is for reading and analyzing csv files", "excerpt": "I've been using https://github.com/medialab/xan for anything csv. It's the best tool there is for reading and analyzing csv files, but not for writing them. Something like cell-sheet-tui would fit my workflow very well, since I am using neovim to edit csv files manually (as well as some csv merging features offered by xan to simplify the process). The reason why I find your software promising is because dealing with ", "context": "", "use_case": "reading and analyzing CSV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: A terminal spreadsheet editor with Vim keybindings"}, {"id": 754225376, "item_id": 47139086, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47139086", "by": "Yomguithereal", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The `xan` command line tool is therefore able to use it to perform single-pass map-reduce parallelization over CSV files", "excerpt": "TL;DR: Seeker struct from simd-csv Rust crate knows how to perform approximate random access in a CSV file [1] The `xan` command line tool is therefore able to use it to perform single-pass map-reduce parallelization over CSV files and also binary search within sorted CSV data! [2] [1]: https://docs.rs/simd-csv/latest/simd_csv/struct.Seeker.html [2]: https://github.com/medialab/xan/", "context": "", "use_case": "Processing CSV files", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cursed engineering: jumping randomly through CSV files without hurting yourself"}, {"id": 750405936, "item_id": 46900371, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46900371", "by": "barmanoo", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "xan, the CSV magician", "excerpt": "xan, the CSV magician https://github.com/medialab/xan", "context": "", "use_case": "CSV processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "I made CSV viewing simple and fast"}, {"id": 746808610, "item_id": 46675538, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46675538", "by": "esafak", "date": "2026-01-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's retired in favor of qsv and xan", "excerpt": "It's retired in favor of qsv and xan: https://github.com/BurntSushi/xsv", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Command-line Tools can be 235x Faster than your Hadoop Cluster (2014)"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["csv reading and analysis", "reading and analyzing csv", "processing csv files", "csv processing"], "compared": [{"slug": "neovim", "name": "Neovim", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47920289", "title": "Show HN: A terminal spreadsheet editor with Vim keybindings", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47136377", "title": "Cursed engineering: jumping randomly through CSV files without hurting yourself", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46900234", "title": "I made CSV viewing simple and fast", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46666085", "title": "Command-line Tools can be 235x Faster than your Hadoop Cluster (2014)", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 767134016, "item_id": 47945876, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47945876", "by": "ranger_danger", "date": "2026-04-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "> It's the best tool there is for reading and analyzing csv files It does not appear to support the file types I regularly work with: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/medical-device-reporting-mdr-how-report-medical-device-problems/mdr-data-files These files have a field delimiter of '|' with a line delimiter of '\\r\\n', as individual fields also contain '\\n' characters. I prefer visidata as the program stays runnin", "context": "", "use_case": "CSV reading and analysis", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: A terminal spreadsheet editor with Vim keybindings"}, {"id": 766758272, "item_id": 47922392, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47922392", "by": "rpassos", "date": "2026-04-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's the best tool there is for reading and analyzing csv files", "excerpt": "I've been using https://github.com/medialab/xan for anything csv. It's the best tool there is for reading and analyzing csv files, but not for writing them. Something like cell-sheet-tui would fit my workflow very well, since I am using neovim to edit csv files manually (as well as some csv merging features offered by xan to simplify the process). The reason why I find your software promising is because dealing with ", "context": "", "use_case": "reading and analyzing CSV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: A terminal spreadsheet editor with Vim keybindings"}, {"id": 754225376, "item_id": 47139086, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47139086", "by": "Yomguithereal", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The `xan` command line tool is therefore able to use it to perform single-pass map-reduce parallelization over CSV files", "excerpt": "TL;DR: Seeker struct from simd-csv Rust crate knows how to perform approximate random access in a CSV file [1] The `xan` command line tool is therefore able to use it to perform single-pass map-reduce parallelization over CSV files and also binary search within sorted CSV data! 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