What is CSV?
CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is a plain-text tabular data format in which each line represents a row and values within a row are separated by commas. Despite its simplicity, CSV is one of the most widely used formats for data exchange between spreadsheets, databases, analytics tools, and APIs.
A CSV file has no formal standard, but the de facto convention (described in RFC 4180) is: each record occupies one line ending with CRLF, the first line is an optional header row naming the columns, values are separated by commas, and values containing commas, newlines, or double-quote characters are wrapped in double quotes. A double-quote within a quoted value is escaped by doubling it ("").
Alternative separators are common — tab-separated files (TSV) use a tab character, and some regional locales use semicolons because the comma is the decimal separator. Many CSV parsers accept a configurable delimiter.
CSV is popular because it is human-readable, editable in any text editor, importable directly into Excel and Google Sheets, and supported by virtually every database, programming language, and data tool. It trades features for simplicity: CSV has no native support for nested data, multiple sheets, data types, formulas, or encoding metadata.
For exchanging flat, rectangular data — user lists, product catalogs, financial records, measurement samples — CSV is often the most pragmatic choice. For hierarchical or schema-rich data, JSON or XML are more appropriate.
quickhelp.dev's JSON to CSV tool converts flat JSON arrays to CSV and back, making it easy to switch between API payloads (JSON) and spreadsheet-friendly formats (CSV) without writing any code.