SWG DataTable Editor

A Visual Studio Code extension for viewing and editing Star Wars Galaxies .tab (DataTable) files with column alignment, type validation, and an Excel-like grid view.

DataTable Editor Screenshot

Features

View DataTable Files: Automatically formats .tab files with aligned columns for easy reading
Type Validation: Validates data against column types (integer, float, string, hash, bool, enum, etc.)
Smart Editing: Edit tables in plain text with automatic column alignment
Save Back to .tab: Converts your edits back to the standard tab-delimited format
Column Info: Shows column types and descriptions in the editor header

Supported Column Types

i - Integer (whole numbers)
f - Float (decimal numbers)
s - String (text)
h - Hash String (stored as integer CRC)
b - Boolean (0 or 1)
e - Enum (enumerated values)
p - Packed ObjVars (packed data)
c - Comment (ignored column)

Usage

Opening DataTable Files

Automatic: Click on any .tab file in VS Code's file explorer
Command Palette: Press Ctrl+Shift+P, type "Open SWG DataTable", and select a file
Right-Click: Right-click a .tab file and select "Open SWG DataTable"

Viewing Format

The extension displays .tab files with:

Header comments showing file path, column count, and row count
Column type descriptions (e.g., weapon_id: s (String))
Aligned columns for easy reading
Tab-separated values

Example display:

# Star Wars Galaxies DataTable
# File: c:\path\to\file.tab
# Columns: 5
# Rows: 50
#
# Column Types:
#   weapon_id: s (String)
#   weapon1: s (String)
#   weapon2: s (String)
#   weapon3: s (String)
#   weapon4: s (String)
#
# Edit the data below. Save to write changes back to the .tab file.

weapon_id                  weapon1                                            weapon2                                            weapon3                                            weapon4
s                          s                                                  s                                                  s                                                  s
pirate_rifle               object/weapon/ranged/rifle/rifle_laser.iff         object/weapon/ranged/rifle/rifle_sg82.iff          object/weapon/ranged/rifle/rifle_t21.iff           object/weapon/ranged/rifle/rifle_dlt20a.iff
pirate_carbine             object/weapon/ranged/carbine/carbine_laser.iff     object/weapon/ranged/carbine/carbine_ee3.iff       object/weapon/ranged/carbine/carbine_elite.iff

Editing

Edit the data rows directly in the editor
Lines starting with # are comments and will be removed on save
Press Ctrl+S (or Cmd+S on Mac) to save changes
The extension validates data types before saving

Formatting

To realign columns after editing:

Press Ctrl+Shift+P and run "Format DataTable Columns"
Or right-click in the editor and select "Format DataTable Columns"

Installation

From VS Code Marketplace

Open VS Code
Go to Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X)
Search for "SWG DataTable Editor"
Click Install

From VSIX

Download the .vsix file
In VS Code, press Ctrl+Shift+P and run "Extensions: Install from VSIX..."
Select the downloaded .vsix file

File Format

DataTable files (.tab) have a simple structure:

<column1>\t<column2>\t<column3>\t...
<type1>\t<type2>\t<type3>\t...
<value1>\t<value2>\t<value3>\t...
<value1>\t<value2>\t<value3>\t...

Line 1: Column names (tab-separated)
Line 2: Column types (single character, tab-separated)
Line 3+: Data rows (tab-separated values)

Requirements

Visual Studio Code version 1.85.0 or higher

Known Issues

Very large files (>10MB) may take a moment to load
Enum type validation requires the enum definition file

Release Notes

1.0.0

Initial release
Tab file viewing with column alignment
Type validation for all column types
Save edited data back to .tab format
Format command for column alignment

Based on Official Source Code

This extension was built by analyzing the official SWG source code from the DataTable and DataTableWriter implementations in the shared utility library.

License

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Credits

Created by Wasted Potential Studios LLC for the Star Wars Galaxies developer community.

Made with ❤️ for the SWG Community

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details