Delimiter Selection Guide
Choose the optimal delimiter for your CSV data
Why Delimiters Matter
The delimiter is the character that separates values in a delimited file. While CSV stands for "Comma-Separated Values," many systems use alternative delimiters to avoid conflicts with data content. Choosing the wrong delimiter can corrupt your data or cause parsing errors.
⚠️ Key Principle: Choose a delimiter that rarely or never appears in your actual data values.
Common Delimiters
Comma (,)
The standard CSV delimiter
id,name,email,age 1,Alice Johnson,alice@example.com,30
✓ Best For
- • Standard data interchange
- • US/UK English data
- • Maximum compatibility
- • Simple numeric data
✗ Conflicts With
- • Addresses: "123 Main St, Apt 4"
- • Numbers: "1,000" or "1,234.56"
- • Lists: "red, green, blue"
- • Names: "Smith, John"
"123 Main St, Apt 4"Semicolon (;)
Common in European locales
id;name;price;description 1;Product A;€19,99;High quality item
✓ Best For
- • European Excel (default delimiter)
- • Data with many commas
- • European number formats (19,99)
- • Addresses and descriptions
✗ Conflicts With
- • Code snippets:
for (i=0; i<10; i++) - • Sentences: "First; then; finally"
- • Bibliography citations
- • Less common in natural text
Tab (\t)
TSV format - Tab-Separated Values
id name description count 1 Item A Full description, with commas 10
✓ Best For
- • Technical/log data
- • Text with punctuation
- • Better visual separation
- • Copy-paste from spreadsheets
✗ Conflicts With
- • Indented code/text (rare)
- • TSV file extension needed
- • Some systems don't support well
- • Invisible character (hard to debug)
Pipe (|)
PSV format - Pipe-Separated Values
id|name|tags|description 1|Product|electronics, gadgets|High-end device
✓ Best For
- • Database exports
- • Log files
- • ETL pipelines
- • Data with commas AND semicolons
✗ Conflicts With
- • Shell commands:
ls | grep - • Some programming syntax
- • Markdown tables
- • Less Excel-friendly
Delimiter Decision Matrix
| Your Data Contains | Recommended Delimiter |
|---|---|
| Simple numbers, IDs, codes | Comma (,) |
| Addresses, company names | Tab (\t) or Pipe (|) |
| European number formats | Semicolon (;) |
| Long text descriptions | Tab (\t) |
| Code snippets, technical data | Pipe (|) |
| Mixed international data | Tab (\t) or Pipe (|) |
Escaping and Quoting Rules
When your data contains the delimiter character, you must escape it properly:
Method 1: Double Quotes (RFC 4180)
id,name,address 1,Alice,"123 Main St, Apt 4, New York, NY"
Wrap the entire field in double quotes if it contains the delimiter
Method 2: Escape Character
id,name,address 1,Alice,123 Main St\, Apt 4\, New York\, NY
Use backslash to escape delimiter (less common, not RFC 4180 compliant)
Method 3: Choose Different Delimiter
id name address 1 Alice 123 Main St, Apt 4, New York, NY
Switch to tab delimiter to avoid comma conflicts (simplest solution)
Best Practices
- 1.Analyze Your Data First:
Check which characters appear most frequently before choosing a delimiter
- 2.Be Consistent:
Use the same delimiter across your organization or project
- 3.Document Your Choice:
Include delimiter info in file names: data_2026_pipe.psv
- 4.Test With Real Data:
Validate with actual dataset before production use
- 5.Consider Your Audience:
Excel users expect commas (US) or semicolons (EU), developers are flexible
File Extension Conventions
.csv
Comma-separated values
Most universal, but delimiter may vary
.tsv or .tab
Tab-separated values
Clear indicator of tab delimiter
.psv
Pipe-separated values
Less common, technical audiences
.txt
Generic text file
Delimiter must be specified separately
💡 Try Different Delimiters
Our converter lets you choose and test different delimiters with live preview. See which works best for your data before exporting.
Test Delimiters Now →Convert with Any Delimiter
Support for comma, tab, pipe, semicolon, and custom delimiters
Start Converting →Authored by: JSON CSV Converter
Last updated: February 19, 2026