Simple Excel Editor
A VS Code extension for editing Excel files (.xlsx / .xlsm) as a spreadsheet directly inside the editor.
Designed primarily for creating and editing test data for Java-based DBRider / DBUnit workflows.
Features
Cell Editing
Double-click any cell to enter edit mode. Press Enter to commit, Escape to cancel, or Tab / Shift+Tab to move to the next/previous cell.
Double-click a header cell to rename the column name inline.
Multi-sheet Support
Click the sheet tabs at the bottom of the editor to switch between sheets.
Row & Column Operations
Use the toolbar buttons to add or delete rows and columns.
To duplicate a selected row, press Ctrl+D — the row is inserted immediately below.
Sorting
Click a column header to sort rows in ascending order. Click again to toggle to descending order.
Search / Filter
Type in the search box on the toolbar to filter rows in real time. The status bar shows how many rows match.
Rows are displayed in pages (default: 200 rows per page). Use the ◀ Prev / Next ▶ buttons to navigate.
The page size can be changed in Settings.
Sheet Management
| Operation |
How to perform |
| Create sheet from rows |
Select rows → right-click → "Create sheet from selected rows" |
| Rename sheet |
Double-click the tab, or right-click → "Rename sheet..." — edit inline, press Enter to confirm or Escape to cancel |
| Delete sheet |
Right-click the tab → "Delete sheet" (confirmation dialog shown; cannot delete if only one sheet remains) |
| Reorder sheets |
Drag and drop a tab to a new position, or right-click → "← Move left" / "Move right →" |
Sheet order is reflected in the saved Excel file.
CSV Support
| Operation |
How to perform |
| Open CSV directly |
Open any .csv file with VS Code — it opens in this editor automatically |
| Import CSV as a new sheet |
Click "Add CSV" on the toolbar → select a file |
| Export all sheets to CSV |
Click "Export CSV" on the toolbar → choose an output folder. A table-ordering.txt is generated automatically. If any {sheet}.csv already exists in the folder, the export is cancelled before writing. |
table-ordering.txt
Create a plain text file named table-ordering.txt where each line is a relative path to a CSV file.
Opening this file in VS Code loads all the listed CSV files as individual sheets in a single multi-sheet view.
Lines starting with # are treated as comments and ignored.
Row Grouping
Rows can be grouped using a column whose header is blank (an empty column name).
Enter a value in the format [GroupName] (e.g. [Happy path]) in that column to mark the row as a group header.
- Click the ▶ Grouped toggle in that row to expand or collapse all rows belonging to that group.
- Each group is highlighted with a distinct background color.
- Use the Group filter dropdown in the toolbar to show only a specific group.
- When adding a new row, the group column value is automatically copied from the selected row.
Enable or disable this feature with simpleExcelEditor.enableRowGrouping in Settings.
Cross-Sheet FK Navigation
When a single cell is selected, the toolbar automatically shows a "→ Navigate in [SheetName]" button if another sheet has a column with the same name.
Clicking the button switches to that sheet and highlights all rows where the column value matches the selected cell.
If multiple sheets have a matching column, a dropdown button appears instead.
Selecting any new cell clears the highlight.
NULL / EMPTY String Distinction
The editor explicitly distinguishes between SQL NULL and an empty string — a key requirement for DBRider / DBUnit datasets.
| Type |
Display |
Default marker |
Keyboard shortcut |
| NULL |
Red background + NULL label |
[null] |
Alt+N |
| Empty string |
Teal background + EMPTY label |
[empty] |
Alt+E |
| Blank cell |
(blank) |
"" |
— |
The marker strings are configurable via simpleExcelEditor.nullMarkers / simpleExcelEditor.emptyMarkers.
Date Validation
Columns whose name contains date, day, _on, or _at are treated as date columns.
Any cell that does not match the ISO format (yyyy-MM-dd or yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss) is highlighted with a light-red background as a warning.
Column Statistics
Click a column header (or any cell in a column) to select the column.
The status bar at the bottom shows:
column_name: 10 rows | NULL: 2 | Empty: 1 | Unique: 7
Language Support
The UI language can be controlled via the simpleExcelEditor.language setting:
| Value |
Behavior |
"auto" (default) |
Follows the VS Code display language |
"en" |
Always English |
"ja" |
Always Japanese |
Changes take effect the next time a file is opened in the editor.
Settings
Click the ⚙ button on the right end of the toolbar, or open the Command Palette and run "Simple Excel Editor: Open Settings".
Requirements
For users (installing from VS Code Marketplace)
No Java, no Node.js, no additional runtime required. Excel I/O is handled by ExcelJS (MIT), which is bundled inside the extension.
Note: .xls (Excel 97–2003 binary format) is not supported. Please use .xlsx or .xlsm.
For developers (building from source)
Development Setup
npm install
Open this folder in VS Code and press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host.
# Type-check + bundle (extension host + webview)
npm run compile
# Watch mode (use alongside F5)
npm run watch
# Run unit tests
npm test
# Package as .vsix
npm run package
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
simpleExcelEditor.nullMarkers |
["[null]"] |
Strings to treat as SQL NULL |
simpleExcelEditor.emptyMarkers |
["[empty]"] |
Strings to treat as empty string |
simpleExcelEditor.pageSize |
200 |
Number of rows per page |
simpleExcelEditor.hasHeader |
true |
Treat the first row as a header |
simpleExcelEditor.enableRowGrouping |
true |
Enable the row grouping feature |
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Key |
Action |
Alt+N |
Insert NULL marker into selected cell(s) |
Alt+E |
Insert empty-string marker into selected cell(s) |
Ctrl+D |
Duplicate selected row below |
Ctrl+S |
Save |
Escape |
Cancel edit / clear selection |
Tab / Shift+Tab |
Move to next / previous cell while editing |
Enter |
Commit edit |
Project Structure
simple-excel-editor/
├── src/
│ ├── extension.ts # Entry point
│ ├── ExcelEditorProvider.ts # Custom editor provider
│ ├── ExcelDocument.ts # Document model
│ ├── CsvUtils.ts # CSV parse / serialize
│ ├── excel/
│ │ ├── IExcelIO.ts # Excel I/O interface
│ │ └── ExcelJsIO.ts # ExcelJS implementation
│ └── test/
│ └── CsvUtils.test.ts # Unit tests (Mocha + ts-node)
├── media/
│ ├── editor.js # Webview UI (bundled by esbuild)
│ └── editor.css # Styles (VS Code theme variables)
├── tsconfig.json
├── tsconfig.build.json
└── tsconfig.test.json
License
MIT
