CSV to JSON Converter

CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is one of the oldest and most widely used data exchange formats. Each line represents a row of data, with individual fields separated by a delimiter (usually a comma). Despite its simplicity, CSV has nuances: fields can be quoted to contain delimiters and newlines, quotes within quoted fields are escaped by doubling them, and different regions use different delimiters (semicolons are common in Europe where commas serve as decimal separators).

There is no formal universal standard for CSV, though RFC 4180 provides common guidelines. This means CSV files from different sources may have subtle differences in formatting, encoding, and delimiter choice.

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data interchange format that's easy for humans to read and write, and easy for machines to parse and generate. It supports six data types: strings, numbers, booleans, null, arrays, and objects.

JSON has become the de facto standard for web APIs, configuration files, and data storage in NoSQL databases. Unlike CSV, JSON natively supports nested data structures, explicit data types, and named fields, making it more expressive but also more verbose for flat, tabular data.

Converting CSV to JSON transforms flat, tabular data into a structured format suitable for web applications and APIs. The most common conversion uses the first CSV row as property names, producing an array of objects where each subsequent row becomes one object.

Key decisions during conversion include: how to handle missing values (empty string vs. null), whether to attempt type inference (converting '42' to a number), and how to handle duplicate column names. This tool preserves all values as strings to avoid data loss from incorrect type inference.

Many REST and GraphQL APIs expect JSON input, but source data often comes from spreadsheets or databases exported as CSV. Converting CSV to JSON is a common step in data pipelines, ETL processes, and migration scripts.

For API consumption, the 'array of objects' format is typically preferred because each object is self-describing with named keys. When sending converted data to an API, you may need to add additional transformation: renaming keys to match the API schema, filtering out unnecessary columns, converting date strings to ISO 8601 format, and nesting flat fields into sub-objects.