Grid Master
A fast, in-editor data grid for VS Code. Open CSV, Parquet, Arrow, JSON, Excel, SQLite, Avro and ORC files as an interactive spreadsheet — without ever leaving the editor.
| Extension |
Format |
Engine |
.csv .tsv .txt |
Delimited text |
PapaParse (inline, instant) |
.parquet .parq |
Apache Parquet |
parquet-wasm + Apache Arrow |
.arrow .feather |
Apache Arrow / Feather |
Apache Arrow JS |
.json |
JSON array |
In-worker parser |
.jsonl .ndjson |
Newline-delimited JSON |
In-worker parser |
.xlsx .xlsb .xls .xlsm |
Excel workbooks |
SheetJS (in-worker) |
.avro |
Apache Avro (OCF) |
avsc (extension host) |
.db .sqlite .sqlite3 |
SQLite databases |
sql.js WASM (extension host) |
.orc |
Apache ORC |
pyorc via Python 3 (extension host) |
Partitioned datasets (Spark-style directories named *.parquet containing part-*.parquet files) are detected automatically and loaded as a single merged table.
Features
Grid & navigation
- Virtualised renderer — only rows in the visible viewport are rendered. 1M-row Parquet files scroll at 60 fps.
- Click-to-sort on any column header — cycles asc → desc → unsorted.
- Drag-to-resize column borders. Double-click the resize handle to auto-fit to content.
- Column color coding — toggle a muted pastel palette to make wide tables easier to scan visually.
- Hide / show columns from a dropdown panel in the toolbar.
Search & filter
- Global search — type in the toolbar to instantly filter all rows across every column.
- Per-column filters — click the filter icon on any header to set conditions (equals, contains, greater than, regex, is null, etc.).
- Live row count — the toolbar shows how many rows match the current search/filter.
Editing
- Inline editing — double-click any cell to edit its value in place.
- Per-edit Undo — step back through changes one at a time.
- Discard all — revert every pending edit with one click.
- Save — write edits back to the file (CSV formats).
Data quality
- Type inference — numbers, booleans, dates and strings are detected automatically from the data.
- No locale-mangling —
2024 stays 2024, never 2.024. Numbers use plain formatting regardless of the OS locale.
- Null awareness — null / empty / NA cells are displayed distinctly and handled correctly in filters and stats.
Persistence
- Sidecar file — column widths and hidden columns are remembered per-file in a tiny
.gridmaster.json next to the data file.
Export
- Export as CSV / TSV / JSON from the toolbar — saves the current filtered and sorted view.
SQLite multi-table
- When you open a
.db file with multiple tables, Grid Master shows a quick-pick so you can choose which table to load.
Getting started
- Install the extension from the VS Code Marketplace.
- Open any supported file — Grid Master activates automatically for
.csv, .parquet, .arrow, .jsonl, .xlsx, .avro, .db, .orc and more.
- For
.json files (which are common in non-tabular contexts), right-click in the Explorer and pick Open with Grid Master.
- ORC files require Python 3 with
pyorc installed: pip3 install pyorc.
Commands
| Command |
Description |
Grid Master: Open with Grid Master |
Open the active or selected file in the grid |
Grid Master: Open as Text |
Re-open the current file in VS Code's plain text editor |
Grid Master: Set as Default Editor |
Register Grid Master as the default editor for all supported tabular formats |
Grid Master: Export as CSV |
Export the current view (with active filters/sort) to a CSV file |
Grid Master: Export as TSV |
Export as tab-separated values |
Grid Master: Export as JSON |
Export as a JSON array |
Grid Master: Show Column Statistics |
Min, max, distinct count and null count for the focused column |
Configuration
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
gridMaster.csvDelimiterAutoDetect |
true |
Auto-detect the CSV delimiter |
gridMaster.csvDelimiter |
, |
Fallback delimiter when auto-detect is off |
gridMaster.maxRowsInMemory |
25000 |
Maximum rows kept in the LRU cache |
gridMaster.chunkSize |
500 |
Rows fetched per virtual scroll chunk |
gridMaster.dateFormat |
auto |
Date display format: auto, ISO, or locale |
| Format |
Parsing |
Notes |
| CSV / TSV |
Main thread, synchronous |
PapaParse; files up to ~500 MB open in under a second |
| Parquet / Arrow |
Web Worker (WASM) |
parquet-wasm + Apache Arrow; only scrolled chunks are decoded |
| JSON / NDJSON |
Web Worker |
Parsed directly; avoids eval-based paths that break VS Code's CSP |
| Excel |
Web Worker |
SheetJS reads the first sheet |
| SQLite / Avro / ORC |
Extension host (Node.js) |
Decoded server-side, streamed to the webview as rows |
An LRU chunk cache keeps memory bounded regardless of file size. Sorting and filtering run inside the worker over a fully materialised row array, so no round-trips to disk for every sort click.
Privacy
Grid Master runs entirely on your machine. Files are never uploaded anywhere, no telemetry is collected, and no network requests are made (Parquet/Arrow WASM is inlined into the extension bundle).
Requirements
- VS Code 1.74 or later.
- For ORC files: Python 3 with
pip3 install pyorc.
- For Avro files: no extra dependencies (avsc is bundled).
- For SQLite files: no extra dependencies (sql.js WASM is bundled).
Issues & feedback
Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue on GitHub.
License
MIT
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