Deleting and Hiding

VisiData gives you two ways to remove columns from view: hide (temporary, reversible) and delete (permanent, undoable with U). Choose the right one for your workflow.

Learning Focus

Use - to hide columns temporarily (they come back with gv). Use d only when you truly want to remove a column from the sheet (recoverable with U). Think of - as "out of sight" and d as "gone from data."

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Hide a Column (-)

Hiding sets the column width to 0 — the column is still part of the data, just not visible.

-           # hide the current column (sets width to 0)

Example — hide metadata columns to focus on business data:

# Move to 'internal_id' column
-           # column disappears from view

# Move to 'created_at' column
-           # column disappears from view

# Later, bring them all back
gv          # all hidden columns reappear with their previous width

Hiding is safe — nothing is removed from the data, and gv restores everything instantly.

Bulk Hide from Columns Sheet

Shift+C     # open Columns Sheet
|           # select columns by name
# Enter: created_at|updated_at|internal_ref
g-          # hide all selected columns
q           # return to clean view

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Delete a Column (d, gd)

Deleting removes the column entirely from the sheet. The data is gone from the current sheet, but all deletes can be undone with U.

d           # delete current column
gd          # delete selected columns

# Delete a single column
# Move to 'internal_notes' column
d

# Delete multiple columns
# Select columns first in Columns Sheet: Shift+C
# Select rows with s, then:
gd

Deleted columns can be recovered with U (undo).

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Hide vs Delete — When to Use Which

	Hide (-)	Delete (d)
Reversible	Instantly with gv	With U (undo)
Data preserved	Yes — just invisible	No — removed from sheet
Saved to file	Yes (still in data)	Yes (removed from data)
Best for	Reducing visual clutter	Removing unnecessary data
Column width	Set to 0	Column removed

Rule of thumb:

• If you might need the column later: hide (-)
• If the column has no value and you're cleaning data: delete (d)

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Quick Reference

Key	Action	Recover with
-	Hide current column	gv
gv	Unhide all hidden columns	—
d	Delete current column	U
gd	Delete selected columns	U
U	Undo last operation	—

What's Next

• Nested JSON Columns — expand JSON into columns
• Aggregators — set aggregators on columns