CSV to Markdown in Vim
Requirements
Open a CSV table (I made this one with :r!sed 's/:/,/g' /etc/passwd | head).
1root,x,0,0,,/root,/bin/bash
2bin,x,1,1,,/,/usr/bin/nologin
3daemon,x,2,2,,/,/usr/bin/nologin
4mail,x,8,12,,/var/spool/mail,/usr/bin/nologin
5ftp,x,14,11,,/srv/ftp,/usr/bin/nologin
6http,x,33,33,,/srv/http,/usr/bin/nologin
7nobody,x,65534,65534,Nobody,/,/usr/bin/nologin
8dbus,x,81,81,System Message Bus,/,/usr/bin/nologin
9systemd-coredump,x,981,981,systemd Core Dumper,/,/usr/bin/nologin
10systemd-network,x,980,980,systemd Network Management,/,/usr/bin/nologin
Highlight the table.
- Go to the top, with 'root'.
- Type
V9j. :!column -ts, -o '|'- Return!
1root |x|0 |0 | |/root |/bin/bash
2bin |x|1 |1 | |/ |/usr/bin/nologin
3daemon |x|2 |2 | |/ |/usr/bin/nologin
4mail |x|8 |12 | |/var/spool/mail|/usr/bin/nologin
5ftp |x|14 |11 | |/srv/ftp |/usr/bin/nologin
6http |x|33 |33 | |/srv/http |/usr/bin/nologin
7nobody |x|65534|65534|Nobody |/ |/usr/bin/nologin
8dbus |x|81 |81 |System Message Bus |/ |/usr/bin/nologin
9systemd-coredump|x|981 |981 |systemd Core Dumper |/ |/usr/bin/nologin
10systemd-network |x|980 |980 |systemd Network Management|/ |/usr/bin/nologin
The command displays as :'<,'>!column -ts, -o '|'.
This looks better, but the spacing is bad because the output separate is -o '|'.
You can put spaces around that pipe by making the separator a pipe (-s'|')
and making the output separator a pipe with spaces (-o' | ').
1:'<,'>!column -ts'|' -o ' | '
1root | x | 0 | 0 | | /root | /bin/bash
2bin | x | 1 | 1 | | / | /usr/bin/nologin
3daemon | x | 2 | 2 | | / | /usr/bin/nologin
4mail | x | 8 | 12 | | /var/spool/mail | /usr/bin/nologin
5ftp | x | 14 | 11 | | /srv/ftp | /usr/bin/nologin
6http | x | 33 | 33 | | /srv/http | /usr/bin/nologin
7nobody | x | 65534 | 65534 | Nobody | / | /usr/bin/nologin
8dbus | x | 81 | 81 | System Message Bus | / | /usr/bin/nologin
9systemd-coredump | x | 981 | 981 | systemd Core Dumper | / | /usr/bin/nologin
10systemd-network | x | 980 | 980 | systemd Network Management | / | /usr/bin/nologin
Make a header by copying the top line and replacing text (yypkR).
That's nicer, but the formatting's wrong again.
1User | Passwords | UID | GID | Description | Home | Shell
2root | x | 0 | 0 | | /root | /bin/bash
3[...]
Time to fix it with :'<,'>!column -ts'|' -o'|'.
1User | Passwords | UID | GID | Description | Home | Shell
2----------------- | ----------- | ------- | ------- | ---------------------------- | ----------------- | ----------
3root | x | 0 | 0 | | /root | /bin/bash
4bin | x | 1 | 1 | | / | /usr/bin/nologin
5daemon | x | 2 | 2 | | / | /usr/bin/nologin
6mail | x | 8 | 12 | | /var/spool/mail | /usr/bin/nologin
7ftp | x | 14 | 11 | | /srv/ftp | /usr/bin/nologin
8http | x | 33 | 33 | | /srv/http | /usr/bin/nologin
9nobody | x | 65534 | 65534 | Nobody | / | /usr/bin/nologin
10dbus | x | 81 | 81 | System Message Bus | / | /usr/bin/nologin
11systemd-coredump | x | 981 | 981 | systemd Core Dumper | / | /usr/bin/nologin
12systemd-network | x | 980 | 980 | systemd Network Management | / | /usr/bin/nologin
Now we just need the spacer line.
Copy the top line (yyp) and replace (:s/not-pipe/-/g).
You can say 'not the pipe symbol' with [^|] or 'not-pipe-or-colon' with [^:|].
1:s/[^:|]/-/g
Keyboard Shortcut
Put this in your ~/.vimrc to map 'Control + s' to reformat CSV while in visual mode.
1vmap <C-s> :!column -ts, -o " \| "<Enter>yyp:s/[^\|:]/-/g<Enter>