Convert NDJSON to TSV
Your NDJSON goes in and a TSV comes out. TSV is the usual choice for bioinformatics and genomics pipelines, where TSV is the working format. Your file never leaves your computer.
Need the other direction? Convert TSV to NDJSON
How to convert NDJSON to TSV
- 1 Drop your NDJSON .ndjson or .jsonl file onto the page, or click to browse for it.
- 2 Check the options. Nothing is thrown away on the way to TSV, so there is no quality dial to set.
- 3 Convert. The work happens on your own machine, so how long it takes depends on your computer and the file.
- 4 Download the TSV, or add more files and do the whole set in one go.
Why convert NDJSON to TSV
- No confusion about quotes, so every line splits cleanly.
- Clipboard transfer between spreadsheets uses tabs, so it round trips cleanly.
- Pasting a table directly between a spreadsheet and a text editor.
- NDJSON: nowhere to put information about the file as a whole.
NDJSON compared with TSV
How the two formats differ on the things that decide whether a conversion is worth making.
| Property | NDJSON | TSV |
|---|---|---|
| File extension | .ndjson | .tsv |
| Colour depth | One JSON value per line, UTF-8, no wrapping array | Tab-delimited UTF-8 text, usually without quoting rules |
| Introduced | 2013 | 1993 |
| Developed by | Community convention, also known as JSON Lines | IANA registration by Paul Lindner |
Quality and what changes
Both sides are lossless, so every pixel survives the trip intact and converting back returns the same image. What changes is the size and what the file can carry: TSV stores the data without compression, so expect a much larger file.
- One TSV limitation to keep in mind: less widely offered as an export option than CSV.
Questions about NDJSON to TSV
Can I open a TSV in a browser?
No. No mainstream browser renders TSV natively, so it will download rather than display. That is fine when the file is heading into desktop software or an archive, and a problem if it is going on a web page.
Is my NDJSON file uploaded anywhere?
No. The whole thing runs inside the browser tab you already have open. Your NDJSON is read straight from your own disk, converted on your machine and handed back as a TSV. Nothing is sent anywhere, nothing is stored and there is no account.
Is there a file size limit?
There is no server-side limit because no server sees the file. The real ceiling is your device memory, since the input and the output both have to fit in the tab. A few hundred megabytes is usually fine on a desktop machine and considerably less on a phone.
Can I convert several NDJSON files at once?
Yes. Add as many as you like and they are processed one after another, then offered as separate TSV downloads or as a single ZIP. Speed depends on your own processor rather than on a queue.
Does the converter work offline?
Yes, after the page has loaded once. The engine is cached by the browser, so you can disconnect, reload and keep converting. That falls out of doing the work locally rather than being a separate mode you switch on.