Are you looking for a simple and effective way to analyze your data stored in CSV files? Good news! There’s a service called WhatTheDuck that allows you to execute SQL queries directly on your CSVs, all from your web browser. Pretty cool, right?
The concept is simple: you upload your CSV files to the site (you can upload multiple files at once), then you write your SQL queries in the designated editor. And there, like magic, WhatTheDuck executes your queries and displays the results! You can even download the result of your query in CSV format.
The interface is super intuitive, and the SQL editor features syntax highlighting to help you write your queries without making mistakes. It’s the ideal tool for quick data analysis without having to install an entire environment on your machine. For example, let’s say you have a CSV file that contains the sales of your online store… with just a few clicks, you can get stats on the best-selling products, calculate your monthly revenue, or list the customers who placed the most orders. The possibilities are nearly limitless!
WhatTheDuck supports a subset of the SQL language, which is more than enough for basic queries. If you’re a database pro, you might find the tool a bit limited, but for most uses, it’s just what you need.
Another example: you’ve got a big CSV file that lists all the restaurants in your city with their addresses and types of cuisine. Instead of going through the whole file manually, you can use this tool to filter the data and find all the Italian restaurants in your neighborhood in two seconds. Handy for planning your next pizza party!
The only small drawback is that your CSV files need to be well-formatted for it to work. Your file needs to have a header row that lists the column names. But that’s usually the case, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
Anyway, I’ll let you explore all the possibilities offered by WhatTheDuck. It’s free and open source, so feel free to take a look at the code if you’re curious about how it’s made.