Delimited

Delimited is a minimalistic CSV and TSV editor for macOS. It’s built for speed and simplicity, letting you quickly create or explore tables and save them in either CSV or TSV format. To ensure compatibility with other tools files adhere strictly to the RFC 4180 specification.

I’ve always thought of Delimited as “the TextEdit version to Numbers”. Lightweight, straightforward and (reasonably) fast, specifically made for working with CSV files. Delimited is native, built in Swift, and designed to handle everything from small to large tables - it has comfortably handled 2 million rows on my M2 MacBook Pro. While it’s not focused on excelling in any particular benchmark, it strikes a balance between performance, design and user experience.

I hope you’ll enjoy using it.

Every now and then I get presented with a CSV file - sometimes a large dataset that has been generated by a device, other times a smaller one mapping some thing to another thing. Before working with the file, I usually want a quick look at the data to ensure everything looks correct and familiarise myself with the table’s structure. I might need to remove empty rows or discard a column that’s irrelevant. After that, the file typically gets used in a piece of code or gets uploaded somewhere else for further use.

I built Delimited out of frustration with existing options. Text editors are my preferred method to edit CSV files because CSV files are nothing but plain text - and text editors are fast. Unfortunately text editors struggle with table layouts and basic operations like swapping or deleting columns - especially when the table is sufficiently large. Spreadsheet apps like Numbers or Excel can feel too complex for simple tasks and often require converting data into proprietary formats or using the cloud. While there are other CSV editors for macOS available, for various reasons I decided to create my own.

I'll expand this list once I get some actual questions.

• What is Delimited's feature-set?

  Delimited is purposefully limited. You can use it to view and edit CSV and TSV files. Files with the .csv extension will use a comma as the delimiter, while files with the .tsv extension will use a tab. Other delimiters are not supported (by design) as they do not adhere to RFC 4180. You can specify whether to interpret the first line in a file as a header row or not.
  
  Delimited displays all rows and columns of your table in one scrollable view, allowing you to freely explore the table's contents. You can add, move, and remove rows and columns. Fields containing newlines are rendered within a single cell, expanding the row to accommodate the content. Text clipped by the column width can be viewed by hovering over the cell or resizing the column.
  
  Additionally, a subtitle can be toggled to display extra information, such as the table's dimensions, the number of selected rows or columns, or details about the currently edited cell.
  
  Copy/paste is all done in plain-text, making it easy to create a subset of a table.
  
  For more information, please refer to the helpbook and screenshots.

• I read the previous question, but can it also do this or that?

  Probably not, sorry.

• It would be great if Delimited could do...

  I'm totally open to feature requests, send me an email at . Check out the Roadmap section to see what I've already got planned. Please don't be annoyed if I say "no" though, I want be sure I'm OK with maintaining the app and supporting all its features going forward. Relevant xkcd.

• Any other tips and tricks?

  Use page up and page down to quickly scroll the table (fn ↑ and fn ↓ on a MacBook).
  
  If you start typing while not editing a cell, the first row with a cell that matches what you typed will be selected.

• Do you plan on running discounts?

  Not really. I don’t like the uncertainty of waiting for a sale that may never come—like holding out for a Black Friday deal on a favorite app. I don’t want to push that feeling onto others.

• Does Delimited support other delimiters besides comma and tab?

  Not at the moment - it’s something I’m in two minds about. On the one hand supporting other delimiters, like the semicolon, seems like a no-brainer: it’s easy to implement and adds functionality. On the other hand, the file extensions “comma-separated values” and “tab-separated values” are named like that for a reason. I (personally) find it somewhat annoying to open a ".csv" file and see a semicolon as the delimiter.
  
  Custom delimiters aren’t mentioned in RFC 4180, whereas commas and tabs are. Allowing other delimiters - whether from a predefined set or as a user-defined character - opens the door to supporting additional non-standard features that have been introduced to the CSV format over time. At the moment I’d prefer not to contribute to the chaos or selectively endorse features outside the RFC.
  
  I do understand that a standard evolves which is why I don't want to rule it out completely but for now: maybe in the future.

Below is a list of features I’d like to add someday. There’s no guarantee if or when they’ll make it into the app, but they’re ideas I would like to see implemented myself.
As with any piece of software: buy it based on what it can do today, not what it promises to be able to do in the future.

• Search

  As you start typing, rows that don’t match your query will hide, similar to Activity Monitor. Ideally you can select a column (or multiple columns) and only search for matches in those columns. I'd like to spend some time figuring out which UI/UX I like best.

• Sorting

  Delimited files are plain text so the only real sorting you can do is alphabetical. However, for columns existing of numbers, it’s more practical to sort them by their numeric values rather than alphabetically. Sorting can be a useful way to transform a table, so it’s a feature I’d like to add someday.

• Formatting

  I prefer seeing numbers in a monospaced font and right-aligned.

• Graphs

  This isn’t a near-term priority, but graphs are incredibly useful for visualizing how data changes over time. It’s a feature I’d find valuable in my own work, so it’s something I’d like to explore adding in the future.

• Summarise

  While I don’t plan to add full-on spreadsheet functions, the idea of selecting a column and quickly calculate a total or similar summary sounds quite useful.

• Languages

  I'd like to translate Delimited to other languages - my first language is Dutch so that would be the first translation.

Helpbook (please note: might not render correctly in browsers other than Safari)

Privacy policy

Presskit

Hey, I'm Willem Kempers. I don't usually write macOS apps - my background is in interactive design. Currently I work freelance within the arts as a creative technologist, software engineer and designer. I prefer working on robotic installation art, you can find my portfolio here.

I have a long-running interest in icon and interface design, and after almost a decade of C++ programming, I thought it would be interesting to try a more modern language. Delimited is the result of my curiosity about UI design, a desire to experiment with a new programming language (Swift), and frustration with working with delimited files on macOS.

I'm a bit fed-up with social media. The best way to contact me is through email: . I try to reply the same day, unless work or life gets in the way.