Why CSV is Slow (and How to Speed Up)
CSV files seem simple, but parsing them correctly is surprisingly complex. Here's why, and how streaming changes the game.
The problem with CSV
- Quoted fields can contain commas and newlines
- Escaping rules vary (double quotes, backslashes)
- No fixed record length means you can't jump to a specific row
- Large files must be read entirely to count rows
How GigaSieve solves this
Instead of loading everything into memory, GigaSieve reads the file in chunks and displays rows as they're parsed. You can start exploring immediately.
Alternative: JSONL
If you control the data format, consider JSONL. Each line is a complete record, making streaming and random access trivial.