Rview

A Positron/VS Code extension for R developers with three main features:

1. Tibble Explorer — Hover on tibble/data.frame names to open them in the Data Explorer or Simple Data Viewer
2. Simple Data Viewer — Lightweight RStudio-style data viewer with column filters
3. Code Section Folding — RStudio-style collapsible code sections using # Section ---- markers

Features

1. Tibble Explorer (Hover to View Data)

Quickly inspect your data frames without leaving your code:

• Hover over any tibble/data.frame variable to see a quick action link to open it in the Data Explorer
• Smart Detection — automatically recognizes variables created with common patterns
• Pipe Chain Support — works with tidyverse pipes (%>% and |>)

Example

my_data <- tibble(
  x = 1:10,
  y = rnorm(10)
)

# Hover on 'my_data' anywhere to view it in Data Explorer
my_data %>%
  filter(x > 5)

Recognized Patterns

The extension detects tibbles/data.frames created with:

Category	Functions
Creation	tibble(), tribble(), data.frame(), as_tibble(), as.data.frame()
Import	read_csv(), read_tsv(), read_excel(), read.csv(), fread()
Transform	mutate(), select(), filter(), summarize(), *_join(), pivot_*()

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2. Simple Data Viewer (with Column Filters)

A lightweight data viewer inspired by RStudio's View() function, with filter inputs on each column.

Features

• Column Filters — Type in the filter box above any column to filter rows
• Lightweight — Simple HTML table, fast and responsive
• 1000 Row Preview — Shows first 1000 rows for large datasets
• Copy/Paste Workflow — Works via clipboard for maximum compatibility

How to Use

1. Place cursor on a data frame variable
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+V or run command "Rview: Open in Simple Data Viewer"
3. The data loads automatically from your R session

Sorting

• Click column headers to sort (ascending → descending → remove)
• Multi-level sorting: Click additional columns while holding sort to add secondary/tertiary sorts
• Sort indicators show the sort order (1↑, 2↓, etc.)

Resizing Columns

• Drag the border between column headers to resize

Screenshot

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 📊 my_data                          100 rows × 5 cols  │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ [Filter...] │ [Filter...] │ [Filter...] │ [Filter...]  │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│ name        │ age         │ city        │ score        │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┤
│ Alice       │ 25          │ New York    │ 95           │
│ Bob         │ 30          │ Boston      │ 87           │
│ ...         │ ...         │ ...         │ ...          │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

---

3. Code Section Folding (RStudio-style)

Organize long R scripts with collapsible sections, just like in RStudio.

Setup in Positron

To enable RStudio-style folding, configure Positron to use this extension as the folding provider:

1. Open Settings (Ctrl+,)
2. Search for folding strategy
3. Set Rview as the Default Folding Range Provider

Or add this to your settings.json:

"editor.foldingStrategy": "auto"

Section Markers

Create a foldable section by ending a comment line with 4 or more dashes:

# Load Data ----
data <- read_csv("file.csv")
data2 <- read_excel("file.xlsx")

# Clean Data ----
data <- data %>%
  filter(!is.na(value)) %>%
  mutate(new_col = value * 2)

# Analysis ----
model <- lm(y ~ x, data = data)
summary(model)

Or by starting a comment with 4 or more hash marks:

#### Load Data ####
data <- read_csv("file.csv")

#### Clean Data ####
data <- data %>%
  filter(!is.na(value))

How to Use

• Click the fold icon in the gutter (left margin) next to section headers
• Or use keyboard shortcuts:
  • Ctrl+Shift+[ — Fold section
  • Ctrl+Shift+] — Unfold section

---

Requirements

• Positron IDE (recommended) or VS Code with R extension
• R language support enabled

Installation

From GitHub (Manual Install)

1. Download or clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/eduaguilera/rview.git
   cd rview

2. Install dependencies and compile

   npm install
   npm run compile

3. Package the extension

   npm install -g @vscode/vsce
   vsce package

   This creates a rview-1.0.0.vsix file.

4. Install in VS Code/Positron

   • Open VS Code or Positron
   • Press Ctrl+Shift+P and type "Install from VSIX"
   • Select the rview-1.0.0.vsix file
   • Reload the window when prompted

From VS Code Marketplace

Coming soon

Commands

Command	Shortcut	Description
rview.openInDataExplorer	Ctrl+Shift+D	Open in Positron Data Explorer
rview.openSimpleViewer	Ctrl+Shift+V	Open in Simple Data Viewer

Known Issues

• Tibble detection uses heuristics and may not catch all data frame variables
• The variable must exist in the R session memory for Data Explorer to work

Development

npm install
npm run compile

Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host for testing.

License

MIT