![]() Working with CSV files isn't difficult when you have only a few small ones on hand. ![]() ![]() But CSV files can also support alternate encodings such as Unicode character sets (e.g. UTF-8 and UTF-16)-as long as the application you're reading or editing them with supports these encodings. For example, what if you want to use special characters and formatting? According to the RFC 4180 specification, the "common usage" of CSV files is the US ASCII character set. However, there are still a few concerns to be aware of when working with CSV files. This makes CSV files compatible and interoperable with other basic file types such as XLS, TXT, and HTML. Most text editors and word processors can save a file in CSV format using the "Save As." option. You can also convert CSV to SQL if you want to store it in a relational database. You can use a text editor like Notepad or a web browser to read them, and they are easy to import into a database or spreadsheet program (e.g. Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or OpenOffice Calc). The simplicity of the format makes it fairly easy to work with CSV files. For example, Microsoft Excel uses semicolon delimiters for CSV files in European countries that use commas where English speakers would use decimal points. For example: Smith, John, "Peoria, Illinois".Īlthough RFC 4180 provides well-defined guidelines for CSV files, there's no guarantee that any particular file with the ".csv" extension will follow these guidelines. Fields that contain commas must use double quotes.If double quotes do not wrap the fields, then the fields should not contain quotation marks. the " character) to enclose each field in a record. You can also optionally use double quotes (i.e.The line break for the last line (record) in a CSV file is optional.It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind."īelow are a few quirks and details of the CSV file format, as described by RFC 4180, that you might want to know about: However, this document is only for informational purposes, and it contains the disclaimer: "This memo provides information for the Internet community. The closest thing to a CSV standard is RFC 4180, which was written in 2005 by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The CSV file definition we gave above basically covers everything you need to know about CSV files-but is there also a formal definition of the CSV file format standard? Join The Stack Monthly Newsletter Is There a CSV File Format Standard? Portable and flexible: As we'll discuss later, it's easy to import CSV files into many other software applications.The only additional space they take up is the header row and the commas between each data field. Lightweight: These files have a small footprint.Easy to read: Unlike some other data storage formats, CSV files are easily readable by humans, as they store information in plain text.Thanks to their simplicity and flexibility, CSV files have a wide variety of applications and benefits. Why Use CSV?ĬSV files are a straightforward, lightweight method for storing relational and tabular data. tab characters, spaces, semicolons) as the separator. Other types of delimited text files may use other characters (e.g. with the newline character "\n" (which is ordinarily invisible when viewing the file).īelow is an example of a simple CSV file structure that contains a header and two employee records: ID,LASTNAME,FIRSTNAME,EMAIL files are a subclass of delimited text files in which the comma character "," acts as the delimiter. Line breaks separate individual records, i.e.(This means that the number of commas in each line should be 1 less than the number of columns.) Each record has one or more data fields separated by commas. The remaining lines in the file consist of records, one per line.The (optional) first line in a CSV file is the "header" and contains the names of the file's columns.The structure of CSV files is as follows: The filename of a CSV file should always include the ".csv" extension. The abbreviation CSV stands for "comma-separated values." A CSV file is a plain text file that stores comma-delimited data in a tabular format.
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