Command Line Tools for Data Science - A Beginner's Guide

Data Science Command Line Tools

Here, we are going to look at the most convenient and common Data Science Command tools for quick analysis of data.

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• alias

It defines or display aliases. It is a Bash built in.

$ help alias
$ alias ll='ls -alF'

• bash

GNU Bourne-Again SHell

$ sudo apt-get install bash
$ man bash

• bc

It is used to evaluate equation from standard input

$ sudo apt-get install bc
$ man bc
$ echo 'e(1)' | bc -l
2.71828182845904523536

• bigmler

Access BigML’s prediction API

$ sudo pip install bigmler
$ bigmler –help

• cat

It concatenates files and standard input, and print on standard output.

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man cat
$ cat results-01 results-02 results-03 > results-all

• cd

It changes the shell working directory. It is a Bash built in.

$ help cd
$ cd ~; pwd; cd ..; pwd
/home/vagrant
/home

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• chmod

It changes files mode bits. We use it to make our command-line tools executable.

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man chmod
$ chmod u+x experiment.sh

• cowsay

It generates an ASCII picture of a cow with a message. Useful for when building up a particular pipeline is starting to frustrate you a bit too much.

$ sudo apt-get install cowsay
$ man cowsay
$ echo 'The command line is awesome!' | cowsay

• cp

Copy files and directories

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man cp

• csvcut

Extract columns from CSV data

$ sudo pip install csvkit
$ csvcut –help

• csvgrep

It filters tabular data to only those rows where certain columns contain a given value or match a regular expression.

$ sudo pip install csvkit
$ csvgrep –help

• csvjoin

Merge two or more CSV tables together using a method analogous to a SQL JOIN operation.

$ sudo pip install csvkit
$ csvjoin –help

• csvlook

Renders a CSV file to the command line in a readable, fixed-width format

$ sudo pip install csvkit
$ csvlook --help
$ echo -e "a,b\n1,2\n3,4" | csvlook

• csvsort

Sort CSV files

$ sudo pip install csvkit
$ csvsort –help

• csvsql

Execute SQL queries directly on CSV data or insert CSV into a database

$ sudo pip install csvkit
$ csvsql –help

• csvstack

Stack up the rows from multiple CSV files, optionally adding a grouping value to each row.

$ sudo pip install csvkit
$ csvstack –help

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• csvstat

It prints descriptive statistics for all columns in a CSV file.

$ sudo pip install csvkit
$ csvstat –help

• curl

Download data from a URL.

$ sudo apt-get install curl
$ man curl

• cut

Remove sections from each line of files

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man cut

• display

Display an image or image sequence on any X server. Can read image data from standard input

$ sudo apt-get install imagemagick
$ man display

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• echo

Display a line of text.

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man echo

• env

Run a program in a modified environment. It is used to specify which interpreter should run our script.

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man env
$ #!/usr/bin/env python

• export

Set export attribute for shell variables. It is a Bash built in. It is useful for making shell variables available to other command-line tools.

$ help export
$ export WEKAPATH=$HOME/bin

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• feedgnuplot

It generates a script for gnuplot while passing data to standard input.

$ sudo apt-get install feedgnuplot
$ man feedgnuplot

• find

Search for files in a directory hierarchy

$ sudo apt-get install findutils
$ man find

• grep

Print lines matching a pattern

$ sudo apt-get install grep
$ man grep

• head

Output the first part of files

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man head
$ seq 5 | head -n 3
1
2
3

• ls

List directory contents

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man ls

• man

Read reference manuals of command-line tools

$ sudo apt-get install man
$ man man
$ man grep

• mkdir

This command is used to make directories.

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man mkdir

• mv

It is used to move or rename files and directories

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man mv

• paste

It is used to merge lines of files

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man paste

• pip

Install and manage Python packages

$ sudo apt-get install python-pip
$ man pip

• pwd

Print name of current working directory

$ man pwd
$ pwd
/home/vagrant

• python

It is used to execute Python, which is an interpreted, interactive, and object-oriented programming Language

$ sudo apt-get install python
$ man python

• R

Analyze data and create visualizations with the R programming language.

$ sudo apt-get install r-base-dev
$ man R

• scp

It is used to Copy remote files securely

$ sudo apt-get install openssh-client
$ man scp

• sort

Sort lines of text files

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man sort

• split

Split a file into pieces

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man split

• sql2csv

It executes arbitrary commands against an SQL database and outputs the results as a CSV

$ sudo pip install csvkit
$ sql2csv –help

• ssh

Login to remote machines

$ sudo apt-get install ssh
$ man ssh

• sudo

Execute a command as another user

$ sudo apt-get install sudo
$ man sudo

• tar

Create, list, and extract TAR archives

$ sudo apt-get install tar
$ man tar

• tee

Read from standard input and write to standard output and files

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man tee

• tree

List contents of directories in a tree-like format

$ sudo apt-get install tree
$ man tree

• type

Display the type of command-line tool. Type is a Bash built-in.

$ help type
$ type cd

• unrar

Extract files from RAR archives

$ sudo apt-get install unrar-free
$ man unrar

• unzip

List, test and extract compressed files in a ZIP archive

$ sudo apt-get install unzip
$ man unzip

• wc

Print newline, word, and byte counts for each file

$ sudo apt-get install coreutils
$ man wc
$ echo 'hello world' | wc -c
12

• which

Locate a command-line tool

$ man which
$ which man
/usr/bin/man