Tab-separated values
| Filename extension |
.tsv, .tab |
|---|---|
| Internet media type |
text/tab-separated-values |
| Type of format | multiplatform, serial data streams |
| Container for | database information organized as field separated lists |
| Standard | IANA MIME type |
A tab-separated values file is a simple text format for storing data in a tabular structure (e.g. database or spreadsheet data). Each record in the table is one line of the text file. Each field value of a record is separated from the next by a tab stop character – it is a form of the more general delimiter-separated values format.
TSV is a simple file format that is widely supported, so it is often used to move tabular data between different computer programs that support the format. For example, a TSV file might be used to transfer information from a database program to a spreadsheet.
TSV is an alternative to the common comma-separated values (CSV) format, which often causes difficulties because of the need to escape commas – literal commas are very common in text data, but literal tab stops are infrequent in running text. The IANA standard for TSV achieves simplicity by simply disallowing tabs within fields.
See also
- Other uses of the term TSV
- Comma-separated values
- Delimiter-separated values
- Labeled tab-separated values
References
- IANA, Text Media Types, text/tab-separated-values, Paul Lindner, U of MN Internet Gopher Team, June 1993
- Tab Separated Values (TSV): a format for tabular data exchange, Jukka Korpela, created 2000-09-01, last update 2005-02-12.