Turn TSV files into CSV
Drop in a TSV and get a CSV back. CSV is the usual choice for exporting reports and query results from a database. Your file never leaves your computer.
Need the other direction? Convert CSV to TSV
How to convert TSV to CSV
- 1 Drop your TSV .tsv or .tab file onto the page, or click to browse for it.
- 2 Check the options. Nothing is thrown away on the way to CSV, 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 CSV, or add more files and do the whole set in one go.
Why convert TSV to CSV
- Opens in every spreadsheet, database and statistics package.
- Streams row by row, so files far larger than memory can be processed.
- Exporting reports and query results from a database.
- TSV: fields containing a tab cannot be represented at all in most dialects.
TSV compared with CSV
How the two formats differ on the things that decide whether a conversion is worth making.
| Property | TSV | CSV |
|---|---|---|
| File extension | .tsv | .csv |
| Colour depth | Tab-delimited UTF-8 text, usually without quoting rules | Delimited text, RFC 4180 quoting, encoding not declared in-file |
| Introduced | 1993 | 1972 |
| Developed by | IANA registration by Paul Lindner | IBM Fortran conventions, later RFC 4180 |
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: CSV stores the data without compression, so expect a much larger file.
- One CSV limitation to keep in mind: no type information, so identifiers and dates get mangled by spreadsheets.
Questions about TSV to CSV
Can I open a CSV in a browser?
No. No mainstream browser renders CSV 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 TSV file uploaded anywhere?
No. The whole thing runs inside the browser tab you already have open. Your TSV is read straight from your own disk, converted on your machine and handed back as a CSV. 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 TSV files at once?
Yes. Add as many as you like and they are processed one after another, then offered as separate CSV 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.