How to view column-aligned CSV files in Visual Studio editor - csv

Question

Opening a .csv file in Visual Studio produces an unreadable jumbled mess. Is there any way to set up Visual Studio to automatically format these files in columns (a "grid-view", so to speak) so I can edit them directly in the IDE? Are there any tricks or workarounds or extensions that could make these files more easily readable?
(VSCode has what looks to be a fantastic extension for this sort of thing, but alas, it won't work in Visual Studio Pro/Enterprise. Also, BeyondCompare4 does this automatically, and Notepad++ has the TextFX plugin which supports this as well. Has no one ever produced such a plugin for VS?)
(UPDATE: I have created a feature request here. Please vote for it if you upvote this ticket.)

Answer 1

You can install csv-viewer extensions by searching for them in the search tool in the VSCode "Extensions" menu.
Some good ones are 'Excel Viewer' by GrapeCity, or 'Edit csv' by janisdd.
Both of these (and many more) allow you to view excel files in columns inside VScode, not just text files as is default.

Answer 2

Without extension, VSCode 1.44 (March 2020) might bring a native answer with:
Custom Text Editors
With custom text editors, extensions can now replace VS Code's standard editor with a custom webview based view for specific text based resources. Potential use case include:
Previewing assets, such as shaders or .obj files.
Creating WYSIWYG editors for markup languages such as XAML.
Providing alternative, interactive views of data files such as json or csv.
The custom editors documentation covers how to use the new custom text editor API and how to make sure your new editor works well with VS Code. Also be sure to check out the custom editors extension sample.
And that comes with:
workbench.editorAssociations setting
Also for custom editor, the new workbench.editorAssociations setting lets you configure which editor is used for a specific resource.
The example below configures all files ending in .catScratch to open using the example custom text editor from our extension samples.
"workbench.editorAssociations": [
{
"viewType": "catCustoms.catScratch",
"filenamePattern": "*.catScratch"
}
]
And:
View: Reopen with
The new View: Reopen with command lets you reopen the currently active file using a different custom editor.
You can use this command to switch between VS Code's standard text editor and the custom editor, or to switch between multiple custom editors for a resource.