IdeaSift

Obsidian users lack compact, scannable tables for small datasets

Some Obsidian users track short records such as lists of items with several attributes, but representing each record as a separate note can create thousands of tiny files. They want to work directly with CSV or JSON data in Bases, and one user is concerned Bases could become slow across a very large vault. Dense values can also be hard to scan without conditional colors.

For obsidian users managing compact structured datasets. Mentioned from Aug 2025 to Oct 2025 on product forums.

3 different people described this problem in 2 separate discussions.

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What people said

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  1. This idea of backing Bases with CSV or Markdown tables is critical to me. I have lots of things I keep track of that are just a few words in each item. I just don’t use Obsidian for them at all, as I don’t want to have to have thousands of separate files with just a couple of words in each file
    ControlAltPete on forum.obsidian.mdOct 2025Asked for a tool
  2. I would like to reiterate that my primary request is for the Bases feature to support working directly with CSV or JSON files
    larry12 on forum.obsidian.mdAug 2025Asked for a tool
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