Better CSV UX

[rbrn-pd]

What

Add right click option to tab or a toolbar icon to open the CSV file in DBCode, would love the connection to not be saved, only open the CSV in the table editor or even better, an option to auto open this type of files directly with DBCode without having to create connections in the sidebar.

Why (problem/use case)

I work a lot with CSV files and i was not aware that your great extension could handle CSV files, i always depended on other extensions like https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ReprEng.csv but it has a few bugs and sometimes is a little bit slow but it's easy to use.

Many times i've CSV files that are not part of the project, they live somewhere in my computer, i simply drag the CSV to VS Code and the current extension "ReprEng.csv" opens it with their UI. I do this because sometimes i need to quickly search the CSV but creating a connection every time i open a CSV will be a nightmare because of the time wasted and because i do not want to keep them as connections.

Additional Context

Add any other context, screenshots, or examples about the feature request here.

[mikeburgh]

Right click on the CSV, choose open with and select DBCode... you can make it the default that way if you want as well (last option in the list).

This flow maps it as a connection, but only a temp one.. it will go away on restart... and it should open up the file for you as a full table.

I think if you make DBCode the default, when you drag/click it will open in DBCode.. re open if that's not the case..

[rbrn-pd]

That seems to work more or less.
1.- Is there a way to configure it so "CSV Format" is always "Auto detect" instead of always asking when opening a CSV file?
2.- Once the format is selected i'm left with an empty pane, i've to go to the sidebar expand data > tables and click csv to finally see the data it would be great to open the CSV data right away.

[mikeburgh]

1.. let me think about it.. probably will be when auto detect fails..

2.. it should auto open as a tab.. can you try it again but with debug on ,and share the log: https://dbcode.io/docs/help-support/debug

[rbrn-pd]

Yes, it opens as a tab but its empty, this happens when i open a CSV file that does not exists in the workspace. To replicate:

1.- Have a workspace with any project open
2.- Drag a CSV that exists outside that workspace to VS Code
3.- Select "Auto detect" in the CSV format pop-up
4.- You are left with an empty tab

logs:
2026-07-30 21:55:39.565 [info] ZeroConfig: Discovered (manually) 'CSV' connection 'PAGINA11072026-1 - PAGINA11072026-1.csv.csv'
2026-07-30 21:55:39.797 [info] Found existing 'DuckDB Binary' version file: '/Users/user/.vscode/extensions/dbcode.dbcode-1.36.6/out/vendor/@duckdb/node_modules/@duckdb/node-bindings-darwin-arm64/DuckDB Binary.json'
2026-07-30 21:55:39.826 [info] Connection: opened 'data' on 'PAGINA11072026-1 - PAGINA11072026-1.csv.csv' (csv:)

For CSV files inside the workspace:
When i click a CSV in the workspace it seems to open the CSV data, well, i did a few tests and one CSV inside the workspace did not open automatically, i had to go to the sidebar and click CSV to see the data, then deleted the connection and tried it again and this time did open correctly.

Seems the problem happens when dragging external CSV files to the editor.

[mikeburgh]

Cool, thanks for the steps.. let me try and replicate and figure out why and get that fixed and see if there is a neat solution to auto detect..

[rbrn-pd]

Perfect, one last thing.

I'm really trying to make the switch to working with CSV files using your extension, but there's one thing that's still getting in the way.

Whenever I have CSV files in my workspace and click on one, my sidebar automatically switches to the DBCode sidebar. The problem is that there's nothing in that sidebar that's useful when I'm working with CSV files. So every time I want to browse my files again, I have to switch back to the Explorer, click another CSV file, and then the sidebar changes back to DBCode again.

It doesn't seem like a big deal at first, but after doing this dozens of times a day, it becomes quite frustrating and really breaks the flow of working with CSV files. Hopefully there's a way to improve that.

[rbrn-pd]

Ok, seems that there's still some bugs with the CSV editor, i can edit the file without errors with Google Sheets and Office but with DB Code if i try to make the same change i get this error "The primary key matched 3 rows instead of 1. To avoid modifying more data than intended, no changes were applied." the change is so simple, in a column i just change from 1 to 0 and it triggers the error with that row. I tried it updating several rows and some of them save some of them trigger the error. There's no logs when the error is triggered.

Also not sure if i'm doing something wrong but is it possible to add or remove columns to the CSV? or is it only to view the existing data.

[mikeburgh]

I just released 1.36.7 which fixes the auto detect prompt, and should let you drag a file in and not open a blank tab.

It also cleans up the double tab shuffle that was happening, and does not switch the sidebar anymore.

These new items..

1. Editing.. you need to select the column (or columns) that uniquely identify a row in the CSV.. The editing is designed around a database, not a CSV file. So it's looking to update a specific row based on the data.. not it's position in a file like how a CSV works. I will think about this some more, but for now not sure there is a good way to change this.. as CSV editing is a by product of opening them for other purposes, not the core focus.
   
2. Adding columns, not currently possible, in theory it's easier than item 1, as I just need to add a column to the underlying backing table, and it would then be saved out to the resulting CSV.. IT's more the UX to do it.. in theory the table editor, but that's going to be a lot of steps. I might look at a common way to add cols to all tables from the grid.. CSV would benefit from it, but not specifically for it.