minimal-csv-diff 0.4.0

Minimal tool to compare CSV files and generate diff reports

📊 minimal-csv-diff

A minimal tool to compare CSV files and generate diff reports for data validation.

✨ Features

• 🔍 Compare two CSV files with common column names
• 🎯 Interactive selection of key fields for comparison
• 📋 Generate detailed diff reports when differences are found
• ⚡ Command-line interface for quick data validation
• 🔎 Identifies unique rows and column-level differences
• 📁 Exports results to CSV format for further analysis

🚀 Quick Start

Option 1: Run Instantly (No Installation) ⭐

uvx minimal-csv-diff

Option 2: Install & Run

pip install minimal-csv-diff
minimal-csv-diff

🎮 Try the Demo

Want to see it in action? Check out the demo directory:

cd demo/
minimal-csv-diff
# Follow prompts: select files 0,1 and choose a key column
# See the magic happen! ✨

The demo includes sample CSV files and shows how the tool identifies:

• 🔴 Unique rows (exist in only one file)
• 🟡 Column differences (same record, different values)
• ✅ Matching records (excluded from output)

📖 How It Works

1. 📂 Select directory containing your CSV files
2. ⚙️ Choose delimiter (comma, semicolon, etc.)
3. 📄 Pick two files to compare
4. 🔑 Select key columns for row matching
5. 📊 Get diff.csv report if differences exist

📤 Output

When differences are found, generates a diff.csv with:

• 🔑 surrogate_key: Concatenated key fields for row identification
• 📁 source: Which file the row comes from
• ❌ failed_columns: Which columns differ or "UNIQUE ROW"
• 📋 All original columns: Complete data for comparison

💡 Use Cases

• 🔄 Data validation between different data sources
• 🔧 ETL pipeline testing - compare before/after transformations
• 🗄️ Database migration verification - ensure data integrity
• 📊 Looker dashboard validation - compare query results across environments
• 🧪 A/B testing data analysis - identify differences in datasets

🛠️ Development

This project uses uv for dependency management.

git clone https://github.com/joon-solutions/looker_data_validation
cd looker_data_validation
uv sync
uv run minimal-csv-diff

📋 Requirements

• Python >= 3.10
• pandas >= 2.0.0