View CSV Files Online, or in Excel and Sheets

A CSV file is a plain-text file that separates values with commas, and double-clicking one often shows everything crammed into a single column, accents turned into odd symbols, or product codes missing their leading zeros. A browser viewer lets you view CSV data as a clean table with nothing to install. When the file needs editing, Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets each have an import step that fixes those problems before the data lands.

How to view a CSV file online without Excel

Drop the file onto the CSV Viewer and it opens as a table in the browser, with no Excel and nothing to install. The table can be sorted and filtered, up to 10,000 rows at a time. The viewer works on any operating system, so a computer without Excel gets the same result as one with it.

1. Open the CSV Viewer in a browser.
2. Drag the CSV file onto the page, or choose it with the file picker.
3. Read the table, and sort or filter the columns if needed.

The viewer reads the file locally, so the file does not leave the device. The app reports only that a file was processed and how big it was, not the file name or its contents. It detects the encoding on its own among UTF-8, Shift_JIS and EUC-JP, and falls back to UTF-8 when it cannot tell.

Every value stays as the file has it, so nothing turns into a date or loses a leading zero. The table tops out at 10,000 rows, so a longer file needs another tool to open it in full.

Why a CSV file looks wrong when you open it

Three import settings produce the usual symptoms: the separator, the text encoding and the column type. A separator is the character that splits one value from the next, usually a comma. An encoding is the rule that turns the stored bytes into letters, such as UTF-8. Each symptom traces back to one of those settings:

• Everything sits in column A. The app splits the text at a different separator than the file uses. The fix is to choose the separator in the import step.
• Accented letters turn into strange symbols. The app reads the file in a different encoding than it was saved in. The fix is to choose the text encoding during import, or to open the file in the CSV Viewer, which detects it.
• Leading zeros vanish. A column of numbers is read as numbers, so the zeros have nothing to hold them. Microsoft's way around it is to convert that column to text during import.

Google Sheets shows how the first fix works in practice: its import step lets you pick what letter or symbol separates cells. When a file has to be saved in a different encoding, the CSV Encoding Converter writes it out as UTF-8, UTF-8 with BOM, Shift_JIS, EUC-JP or JIS.

Open a CSV file in Excel and keep leading zeros

Setting the column to text during import is what preserves leading zeros, according to Microsoft's page on importing text files into Excel. Postal codes, phone extensions and product codes are the usual columns that need it.

Opening a CSV in Excel does not change the file itself. The title bar keeps the .csv extension in the file name, so the original stays as it was. Check that the zeros are still there before saving anything back out.

A reader who only needs to look at the file, with no Excel at hand, can open it in the CSV Viewer instead. It shows each value as the file stores it, leading zeros included.

Import a CSV file into Numbers before you edit it

Numbers accepts changes to its import settings only until the imported table is edited, so check the columns before touching anything. Apple states that the settings cannot be adjusted after an edit. Numbers imports Excel spreadsheets as well as delimited or fixed-width text files.

When the columns do not line up, click the table, open the Format sidebar and choose the Table tab. Then click Adjust Import Settings. The Text Encoding pop-up menu there sets the encoding, which is the fix for garbled accents.

Open a CSV file in Google Sheets

The separator is chosen in the import step of Google Sheets, which is where a CSV that lands in one column gets fixed. Google says a spreadsheet can be imported in many file formats, including .xls, .csv and .txt. Choosing the separator there is what puts each value in its own column.

Google also lists six import options, and not every file type has all six. The dialog shows which ones apply to the file being imported, so the choice is made on the spot instead of in advance.

View a CSV file on iPhone or Android

Safari on iPhone and Chrome on Android both run the CSV Viewer, so a phone needs no app to show a CSV as a table. Pick the file in the browser and the same table appears as on a computer. The file is read on the device, as it is everywhere else.

A spreadsheet app would have to be installed first. For a quick look at what is inside a CSV file, the browser route is shorter on either phone.

Which way to open a CSV file fits your situation

For a quick look, view the CSV in the CSV Viewer; for editing, import it in the spreadsheet app already in use. Each situation below maps to one route. Looking at the file before editing avoids the problems a double-click causes.

To view CSV data right now on any device, the CSV Viewer opens the file as a table in the browser. The spreadsheet apps remain the route once the file has to be edited.