Values containing tabs are the risk here
Rare, but not impossible — text pasted from a document can carry a tab. Those values are quoted, which some strict TSV readers do not expect.
Convert CSV to TSV
Tabs make a delimited file dramatically less fragile, because real data almost never contains one. Converting CSV to TSV is a common step before loading into a database, a bioinformatics tool, or a shell pipeline built on cut and awk.
- Runs in your browser
- No signup
- No upload
- Free
CSVTSV
Runs on your deviceCSV
Options
Reading CSV
Auto-detect reads the first rows and picks the separator that splits them consistently.
Turn off when the file starts straight into data. Columns are then named column_1, column_2, and so on.
Turns "42" into a number and "true" into a boolean. Values with leading zeros stay text so IDs and zip codes survive.
Which worksheet to convert. Filled in once the workbook is read.
Dotted path to the array of records, such as data.items. Leave empty to use the whole document.
Turns {"user":{"id":7}} into a user.id column. Arrays are kept as JSON text.
Pick the encoding the file was written in. Wrong encoding shows up as garbled accents.
Comma-separated words that should become null instead of text.
Writing TSV
Snappy is the default across Spark, DuckDB and pandas. Gzip is smaller but slower to read.
Turns a user.id column back into {"user":{"id":7}}.
Excel needs a byte order mark to open UTF-8 files with accents correctly.
Rows per row group. Larger groups compress better; smaller groups let readers skip more.
Converting…
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Work with Parquet as well?See ParquetReader with ParquetReader — opens Parquet files directly.What happens
How this converter handles CSV to TSV
- Parses the CSV correctly, including quoted fields containing commas and newlines.
- Rewrites the rows with tab separators.
- Quotes only the values that genuinely need it — usually none, once commas are no longer special.
- Keeps header and column order unchanged.
Format differences
CSV vs TSV
Plain text rows that open anywhere, with no types and no schema. Like CSV, but tab-delimited, so commas inside values stay harmless.
| CSV | TSV | |
|---|---|---|
| Type information | None — every value is text | None — every value is text |
| Structure | Flat rows and columns | Flat rows and columns |
| Compression | None | None |
| Typical file size | Baseline (100%) | Same as CSV |
| Schema | Header row at best | Header row at best |
| Human-readable | Yes, in any text editor | Yes, in any text editor |
| Tool support | Universal | Universal |
Worth knowing
What to watch out for
The file looks misaligned in an editor
Tabs render at different widths depending on the tab stop, so columns rarely line up visually. This is a display artefact, not a data problem.
Tools disagree about what TSV means
Some expect no quoting at all and backslash escapes instead. Check a sample if you are loading into something strict, such as a bulk COPY into Postgres.
When you need this
Common reasons to convert CSV to TSV
Loading into Postgres or MySQL
Bulk load commands handle tab-delimited input with fewer escaping surprises.
Shell pipelines
cut, awk and sort all default to tab-aware behaviour.
Bioinformatics and scientific tooling
Much of that ecosystem standardised on tab-delimited files.
FAQ
CSV to TSV questions
Is my CSV uploaded?
No. The conversion runs in your browser using WebAssembly and JavaScript. The file is read from your disk into a Web Worker, converted in memory, and handed back as a download. It is never sent to a server, so there is nothing for us to store, log or leak.
Why convert to TSV at all?
Because commas are common inside real values and tabs are not. Switching delimiters removes most of the quoting complexity, which makes the file safer for simple line-based tools.
What happens to values that contain a tab?
They are quoted so the structure survives. Check your destination tolerates quoting if it is a strict TSV reader.
Can I skip the header row?
Yes — turn off "Write a header row" in the output options.
Which extension should I use?
Both .tsv and .tab are common. .tsv is the clearer choice.
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