EasyCols

Build Status Gem Version Ruby Version

A powerful command-line tool for extracting and processing columns from structured text data in various formats.

Features

  • Multiple Input Formats: CSV, TSV, table, and plain text with auto-detection
  • Flexible Column Selection: By index, range, or header name
  • Format Conversion: Convert between CSV, TSV, table, and plain formats
  • Sophisticated Parsing: Quote handling, comment stripping, header processing
  • Multiple Output Formats: CSV, TSV, table, plain, or customizable separators
  • STDIN Support: Process data from pipes and streams
  • Language-Specific Comment Patterns: Ruby, C, Go, Python, and more

Installation

As a Gem

gem install easy_cols

After installation, the easy_cols and ec commands will be available.

From Source

git clone https://github.com/aks/easy_cols.git
cd easy_cols
bundle install
rake install

Usage

Basic Column Selection

# If no column selectors are provided, all columns are output by default
ec data.csv

# Select columns by index
ec data.csv 0 1 2

# Select columns by name
ec data.csv 'Name' 'Email'

# Select column ranges
ec data.csv 0-5

# Mix different selector types
ec data.csv 0,2,'Name','Email'

Input and Output Formats

# Auto-detect input format (default)
ec data.csv 0 1 2

# Explicit input format
ec --in=csv data.csv 0 1 2
ec --in=tsv data.tsv 0 1 2
ec --in=table data.txt 0 1 2
ec --in=plain data.txt 0 1 2

# Format conversion (CSV to table)
ec --in=csv --out=table data.csv 0 1 2

# Format conversion (table to CSV)
ec --in=table --out=csv data.txt 0 1 2

# Auto-detect input, convert to table
ec --out=table data.csv 0 1 2

# Legacy format option (still supported)
ec --format tsv data.tsv 0 1 2

Output Formatting Options

# Output as table format (with column widths and separator lines)
ec --out=table data.csv 0 1 2

# Output as CSV
ec --out=csv data.csv 0 1 2

# Output as TSV
ec --out=tsv data.csv 0 1 2

# Output as plain (whitespace-separated, aligned columns)
ec --out=plain data.csv 0 1 2

# Legacy separator options (still supported)
ec --tab data.csv 0 1 2
ec --comma data.csv 0 1 2
ec --output-delimiter ' | ' data.csv 0 1 2

Advanced Options

# No header output
ec --no-header data.csv 0 1 2

# Count columns instead of selecting
ec --count data.csv

# Read from STDIN
cat data.csv | ec - 0 1 2

# Verbose output
ec --verbose data.csv 0 1 2

Examples

CSV Processing

$ cat data.csv
Name,Age,City,Country
John,25,NYC,USA
Jane,30,LA,USA
Bob,35,London,UK

$ ec data.csv 0 1
Name , Age
John , 25
Jane , 30
Bob , 35

$ ec --table data.csv 0 1
Name | Age
-----+----
John | 25
Jane | 30
Bob  | 35

TSV Processing

$ ec --in=tsv data.tsv 'Name' 'City'
Name , City
John , NYC
Jane , LA
Bob  , London

Format Conversion

# Convert CSV to table format
$ ec --out=table data.csv 0 1
Name | Age
-----+----
John | 25
Jane | 30
Bob  | 35

# Convert table to CSV
$ cat table.txt
Name | Age | City
-----+-----+-----
John | 25  | NYC
Jane | 30  | LA

$ ec --in=table --out=csv table.txt 0 2
Name,City
John,NYC
Jane,LA

# Auto-detect input format, convert to TSV
$ ec --out=tsv data.csv 0 1
Name    Age
John    25
Jane    30

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/aks/easy_cols.git
cd easy_cols
bundle install

Running Tests

bundle exec rspec

Building the Gem

bundle exec rake build

Version Management and Releases

This project uses Semantic Versioning and includes Rake tasks for version bumping and releases.

Version Bumping

Use the Rake tasks to bump the version:

# Show current version
rake version:current

# Bump patch version (0.0.x)
rake version:patch

# Bump minor version (0.x.0)
rake version:minor

# Bump major version (x.0.0)
rake version:major

These tasks update lib/easy_cols/version.rb. After bumping, commit the change:

git add lib/easy_cols/version.rb
git commit -m "Bump version to X.Y.Z"
git push

Creating a Release

After bumping the version and merging to main:

  1. Ensure you're on main branch:

    git checkout main
git pull

  2. Verify everything is committed and synced: The rake release task will check this for you.

  3. Create the release:

    rake release

This will:

  • Verify you're on the main branch
  • Check for uncommitted changes
  • Verify the tag doesn't already exist
  • Ensure you're synced with remote
  • Create an annotated git tag (vX.Y.Z)
  • Push the tag to origin
  1. CI automatically handles:
    • Running all tests
    • Creating a GitHub Release (with .tar.gz and .zip source archives)
    • Publishing the gem to RubyGems

Note: You'll need to set the RUBYGEMS_API_KEY secret in your GitHub repository settings for automatic publishing to work.

Contributing

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
  5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Roadmap

  • [ ] Language-specific comment pattern support
  • [ ] Advanced filtering options (start/stop patterns)
  • [ ] Quote handling improvements
  • [ ] Performance optimizations for large files
  • [ ] Additional output formats (JSON, XML)
  • [ ] Configuration file support

Acknowledgments

  • Inspired by Unix text processing tools
  • Built with Ruby's excellent CSV library
  • Thanks to the Ruby community for inspiration and tools