Data Toolkit for Developers

A VS Code extension built for data engineers. Convert lists, build SQL scripts, compare columns, count values, deduplicate data, and assemble Excel formulas — all without leaving your editor.

Features at a Glance

Context Menu (Right-Click) Commands

Select one or more lines in any editor, right-click, and choose Data Toolkit from the context menu.

Convert to CSV Format

Converts a multi-line selection into a properly formatted CSV row. Strips bullet points, numbers, and other list prefixes. Respects the delimiter setting.

Convert to Comma Separated Line

Converts a list into a single comma-separated line. Optionally wraps each value in single quotes — ready to paste into a SQL IN (...) clause.

Generate SQL Table from Selection

Select tabular data (tab- or comma-separated, with a header row) and generate a complete CREATE TABLE + INSERT script for the target SQL dialect.

Count Value Occurrences (GROUP BY)

Select a list of values and get a value,count CSV copied to your clipboard — sorted by frequency descending. Equivalent to SELECT value, COUNT(*) GROUP BY value ORDER BY 2 DESC.

Remove Duplicate Lines

Deduplicates the selected lines in-place, preserving the order of first occurrence.

Compare Two Columns

Opens the Data Toolkit panel on the Compare tab with Column A pre-filled from the current selection. Paste Column B to run set operations.

Data Toolkit Panel (Webview)

Open via the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P → Data Toolkit: Open Toolkit) or the right-click menu.

Tab 1 — List → Line

Paste a list into the input area and convert it with options:

• Separator: any character (default ,)
• Enclosure: none, single quotes, or double quotes
• Wrap as SQL IN ( ): wraps the result in an IN (...) clause
• Remove duplicates before converting

Quote characters inside a value are doubled, so O'Brien becomes 'O''Brien' and the clause stays valid. Use Preview to see the result, or Convert & Copy to copy it to your clipboard.

Tab 2 — Count & Dedupe

Paste a list to:

• Count values — get a value,count list (CSV or TSV), sorted by frequency descending
• Remove duplicates — see the deduplicated list

Both honour the Case-sensitive and Trim whitespace options, and the result has a copy-to-clipboard button.

Tab 3 — Compare Columns

Paste two lists (one per column) and choose a set operation:

All three result sets are shown side by side with counts, and each has its own copy button. Case-sensitive and Trim whitespace options control how values are matched.

Rows (tabular) mode compares two tables instead of two lists. Paste tabular data with a header row into each side; rows are matched on a key column (auto-selected, overridable) and classified as added, removed, changed or unchanged, with the differing fields highlighted inline as before → after.

Columns are matched by header name, so reordering them is not treated as a change. Duplicate keys and columns present on only one side are reported as warnings rather than silently affecting the result.

Tab 4 — SQL Builder

Paste tabular data (auto-detects tab, comma, pipe, or semicolon delimiters) and configure:

• Table name
• SQL dialect: Spark SQL, MS SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL
• Infer data types: automatically detects INTEGER, DECIMAL, DATE, TIMESTAMP, VARCHAR
• Size VARCHAR to sample: off by default (VARCHAR(255)); enable for widths derived from the pasted data

Generates a CREATE TABLE statement and INSERT rows. Copy the script to your clipboard, or Open in Editor to send it to a new SQL tab.

Input is parsed with RFC 4180 quoting, so a field like "Smith, John" stays one column. Column names are made into valid, unique SQL identifiers — duplicates are suffixed and names starting with a digit are prefixed. Identifiers are quoted only when they need it, so my_table stays bare while a reserved word such as order is quoted; tick Always quote identifiers to quote everything.

Example input:

id	name	hire_date	salary
1	Alice	2022-03-15	75000
2	Bob	2021-07-01	82000

Example output (PostgreSQL):

CREATE TABLE "employees" (
    "id" INTEGER,
    "name" VARCHAR(255),
    "hire_date" DATE,
    "salary" INTEGER
);

INSERT INTO "employees" ("id", "name", "hire_date", "salary") VALUES
    (1, 'Alice', '2022-03-15', 75000),
    (2, 'Bob', '2021-07-01', 82000);

With Size VARCHAR to sample enabled, "name" becomes VARCHAR(10) instead.

Values that only look numeric are kept as text, so zero-padded identifiers like 007 survive the round trip instead of being written as 7.

Tab 5 — Excel Formulas

Select a formula category, choose a formula, fill in the parameters, and copy the result. A live preview updates as you type.

Available formulas by category:

Settings

These settings apply to the Convert to CSV Format command. The panel has its own per-tab options.

Open settings via Ctrl+Shift+P → Data Toolkit: Open Extension Settings.

Commands Reference

Requirements

No external dependencies. Works out of the box with VS Code 1.101.0 and later.

Everything runs locally — the extension makes no network requests and collects no telemetry.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for build and development instructions, and open an issue for anything that looks wrong.

License

MIT