NAME
Acme::CPANModules::BrowsingTableInteractively - List of modules/tools
for browsing table data interactively

VERSION
This document describes version 0.009 of
Acme::CPANModules::BrowsingTableInteractively (from Perl distribution
Acme-CPANModules-BrowsingTableInteractively), released on 2023-06-15.

DESCRIPTION
This list reviews what tools are available on CPAN and in general to
browse table data interactively.

Let me say first that the best tools are not Perl-based since sadly Perl
is not a favorite choice for writing tools these days. That said, Perl
is still a great glue to help make those tools work together better for
you.

1) Visidata, <https://www.visidata.org>

This is currently my favorite. It's terminal-based, written in Python,
and has more features than any other tools currently written in Perl, by
far. vd has support for many formats, including CSV, TSV, Excel, JSON,
and SQLite. It makes it particularly easy to create summary for your
table like histogram or sum/average/max/min/etc, or add new columns, or
edit some cells. It also has visualization features like XY-plots.

It has the concept of "sheets" like sheets in a spreadsheet workbook so
anytime you filter rows/columns or create summary or do some other
derivation from your data, you create a new sheet which you can edit,
save, and destroy later as needed and go back to your original table. It
even presents settings and metadata as sheets so you can edit them as a
normal sheet.

It has plugins, and I guess it should be simple enough to create a
plugin so you can filter rows or add columns using Perl expression
instead of the default Python, if needed.

My CLI framework Perinci::CmdLine (Perinci::CmdLine::Lite, v1.918+) has
support for Visidata. You can specify command-line option "--format=vd"
to browse the output of your CLI program in Visidata.

2) DataTables, <https://datatables.net>

DataTables is a JavaScript (jQuery-based) library to add controls to
your HTML table so you can filter rows incrementally, sort rows, reorder
columns, and so on. It also has plugins to do more customized stuffs. I
still prefer Visidata most of the time because I am comfortable living
in the terminal, but I particularly love the incremental searching
feature that comes built-in with DataTables.

My CLI framework Perinci::CmdLine (Perinci::CmdLine::Lite, v1.918+) also
has support for DataTables. You can specify command-line option
"--format=html+datatables" to output your CLI program's result as HTML
table (using Text::Table::HTML::DataTables) when possible and then
browse the output in browser.

3) Tickit::Widget::Table, Tickit::Widget::Table

This module lets you browse the table in a terminal. Using the Tickit
library, the advantages it's supposed to have is mouse support. It's
still very basic: you either have to specify each column width manually
or the width of all columns will be the same. There's no horizontal
scrolling support or a way to see long text in a column. Not updated
since 2016.

4) Term::TablePrint, Term::TablePrint

This module lets you browse the table in a terminal. Provides roughly
the same features like Tickit::Widget::Table with an extra one: you can
press Enter on a row to view it as a "card" where each column will be
displayed vertically, so you can better see a row that has many columns
or columns with long text.

There is currently no support beyond the most basic stuffs, so no column
hiding, reordering, etc.

5) less

Don't forget the good ol' Unix pager. You can render your table data as
an ASCII table (using modules like Text::Table::More, Text::ANSITable,
or Text::Table::Any for more formats to choose from) then pipe the
output to it. At least with *less* you can scroll horizontally or
perform incremental searching (though not interactive filtering of
rows).

6) SQLite browser, SQLiteStudio, or other SQLite-based front-ends

Another way to browse your table data interactively is to export it to
SQLite database then use one of the many front-ends (desktop GUI,
web-based, TUI, as well as CLI) to browse it. If you have your table
data as a CSV, you can use the csv2sqlite script from App::SQLiteUtils
to convert it to SQLite database.

<https://sqlitebrowser.org>

<http://sqlitestudio.pl>

6) Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice, or other spreadsheet programs

Yet another way to browse your table data interactively is to use a
spreadsheet, which offers a rich way to view and manipulate data. You
can generate a CSV from your table data; all spreadsheets support
opening CSV files.

ACME::CPANMODULES ENTRIES
Tickit::Widget::Table
Author: TEAM <https://metacpan.org/author/TEAM>

Term::TablePrint
Author: KUERBIS <https://metacpan.org/author/KUERBIS>

Text::Table::HTML::DataTables
Author: PERLANCAR <https://metacpan.org/author/PERLANCAR>

App::SQLiteUtils
Author: PERLANCAR <https://metacpan.org/author/PERLANCAR>

FAQ
What is an Acme::CPANModules::* module?
An Acme::CPANModules::* module, like this module, contains just a list
of module names that share a common characteristics. It is a way to
categorize modules and document CPAN. See Acme::CPANModules for more
details.

What are ways to use this Acme::CPANModules module?
Aside from reading this Acme::CPANModules module's POD documentation,
you can install all the listed modules (entries) using cpanm-cpanmodules
script (from App::cpanm::cpanmodules distribution):

% cpanm-cpanmodules -n BrowsingTableInteractively

Alternatively you can use the cpanmodules CLI (from App::cpanmodules
distribution):

% cpanmodules ls-entries BrowsingTableInteractively | cpanm -n

or Acme::CM::Get:

% perl -MAcme::CM::Get=BrowsingTableInteractively -E'say $_->{module} for @{ $LIST->{entries} }' | cpanm -n

or directly:

% perl -MAcme::CPANModules::BrowsingTableInteractively -E'say $_->{module} for @{ $Acme::CPANModules::BrowsingTableInteractively::LIST->{entries} }' | cpanm -n

This Acme::CPANModules module also helps lcpan produce a more meaningful
result for "lcpan related-mods" command when it comes to finding related
modules for the modules listed in this Acme::CPANModules module. See
App::lcpan::Cmd::related_mods for more details on how "related modules"
are found.

HOMEPAGE
Please visit the project's homepage at
<https://metacpan.org/release/Acme-CPANModules-BrowsingTableInteractivel
y>.

SOURCE
Source repository is at
<https://github.com/perlancar/perl-Acme-CPANModules-BrowsingTableInterac
tively>.

SEE ALSO
Related lists: Acme::CPANModules::TextTable,
Acme::CPANModules::WorkingWithCSV.

Acme::CPANModules - about the Acme::CPANModules namespace

cpanmodules - CLI tool to let you browse/view the lists

AUTHOR
perlancar <perlancar@cpan.org>

CONTRIBUTING
To contribute, you can send patches by email/via RT, or send pull
requests on GitHub.

Most of the time, you don't need to build the distribution yourself. You
can simply modify the code, then test via:

% prove -l

If you want to build the distribution (e.g. to try to install it locally
on your system), you can install Dist::Zilla,
Dist::Zilla::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR,
Pod::Weaver::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR, and sometimes one or two
other Dist::Zilla- and/or Pod::Weaver plugins. Any additional steps
required beyond that are considered a bug and can be reported to me.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

BUGS
Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website
<https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Acme-CPANModules-Brow
singTableInteractively>

When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch
to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.