squint: Simple query interface for tabular data

Squint is a simple query interface for tabular data that’s light-weight and easy to learn. A core feature of Squint is that the structure of a query’s selection determines the structure of its result. With it you can:

Select data using Python literals—sets, lists, dictionaries, etc.—and get results in the same format.
Aggregate, map, filter, reduce, and otherwise manipulate data.
Lazily iterate over results, write them to a file, or eagerly evaluate them in memory.
Analyze data from CSV, Excel, SQL, and other data sources.

Documentation:: https://squint.readthedocs.io/ (stable)

https://squint.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ (latest)
Official:: https://pypi.org/project/squint/
Development:: https://github.com/shawnbrown/squint

Some Examples

The examples below will query a CSV file containing the following data (example.csv):

A	B	C
x	foo	20
x	foo	30
y	foo	10
y	bar	20
z	bar	10
z	bar	10

To begin, we load the CSV file into a Select object:

import squint

select = squint.Select('example.csv')

When you select a	The result contains a
single column `select('A')`	list of values from that column `['foo', 'foo', 'foo', 'bar', 'bar', 'bar']`
tuple of columns `select(('A', 'B'))`	list of tuples with values from those columns `[('x', 'foo'), ('x', 'foo'), ('y', 'foo'), ('y', 'bar'), ('z', 'bar'), ('z', 'bar')]`
set of columns `select({'A', 'B'})`	list of sets with values from those columns `[{'x', 'foo'}, {'x', 'foo'}, {'y', 'foo'}, {'y', 'bar'}, {'z', 'bar'}, {'z', 'bar'}]`
dictionary of columns `select({'A': 'C'})`	dictionary with keys and values from those columns `{'x': [20, 30], 'y': [10, 20], 'z': [10, 10]}` (Notice that values are grouped by matching key.)
dictionary with a tuple of column values `select({'A': ('B', 'C')})`	dictionary with keys and tuples of values from those columns `{'x': [('foo', 20), ('foo', 30)], 'y': [('foo', 10), ('bar', 20)], 'z': [('bar', 10), ('bar', 10)]}`
dictionary with a tuple of column keys `select({('A', 'B'): 'C'})`	dictionary with tuple keys and values from those columns `{('x', 'foo'): [20, 30], ('y', 'foo'): [10], ('y', 'bar'): [20], ('z', 'bar'): [10, 10]}`

When you select a

The result contains a

single column

select('A')

list of values from that column

['foo',
 'foo',
 'foo',
 'bar',
 'bar',
 'bar']

tuple of columns

select(('A', 'B'))

list of tuples with values from those columns

[('x', 'foo'),
 ('x', 'foo'),
 ('y', 'foo'),
 ('y', 'bar'),
 ('z', 'bar'),
 ('z', 'bar')]

set of columns

select({'A', 'B'})

list of sets with values from those columns

[{'x', 'foo'},
 {'x', 'foo'},
 {'y', 'foo'},
 {'y', 'bar'},
 {'z', 'bar'},
 {'z', 'bar'}]

dictionary of columns

select({'A': 'C'})

dictionary with keys and values from those columns

{'x': [20, 30],
 'y': [10, 20],
 'z': [10, 10]}

(Notice that values are grouped by matching key.)

dictionary with a tuple of column values

select({'A': ('B', 'C')})

dictionary with keys and tuples of values from those columns

{'x': [('foo', 20), ('foo', 30)],
 'y': [('foo', 10), ('bar', 20)],
 'z': [('bar', 10), ('bar', 10)]}

dictionary with a tuple of column keys

select({('A', 'B'): 'C'})

dictionary with tuple keys and values from those columns

{('x', 'foo'): [20, 30],
 ('y', 'foo'): [10],
 ('y', 'bar'): [20],
 ('z', 'bar'): [10, 10]}

Installation

The Squint package is tested on Python 2.7, 3.4 through 3.8, PyPy, and PyPy3; and is freely available under the Apache License, version 2.

The easiest way to install squint is to use pip:

pip install squint

To upgrade an existing installation, use the “--upgrade” option:

pip install --upgrade squint

The development repository for squint is hosted on GitHub. If you need bug-fixes or features that are not available in the current stable release, you can “pip install” the development version directly from GitHub:

pip install --upgrade https://github.com/shawnbrown/squint/archive/master.zip

All of the usual caveats for a development install should apply—only use this version if you can risk some instability or if you know exactly what you’re doing. While care is taken to never break the build, it can happen.

Freely licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0

Metadata

Release files for squint 0.2.0

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for squint 0.2.0
File	Size	Uploaded
squint-0.2.0.tar.gz	50.3 kB	Feb 18, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for squint 0.2.0
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
squint-0.2.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl 41.9 kB Feb 18, 2026	Python 3, Python 2	none	any	Details

Total release size: 92.2 kB

Release files / squint-0.2.0.tar.gz

Download URL	squint-0.2.0.tar.gz
Size	50.3 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`e982a7ce42cc5b6cd423f713c7903d6bbfbab9047d33bd790ba90349f7f61186`
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Uploaded via	`twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.13.11`

Release files / squint-0.2.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	squint-0.2.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Size	41.9 kB
Tags	Python 2 Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`677761ade70e8c3194bf933563cc5983619b97a82ac972a7fe145ec80d48036c`
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Upload date	Feb 18, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.13.11`