Separation with Commas

Value separation is a common operation in data processing. It ensures that the information contained in a file (often in text form) is correctly identified and interpreted.

In a CSV file, individual values are typically separated by commas, tabs, or other specific characters.

dCode tries to catch all values and their separator automatically and proposes to reorganize them, either under the list form with the chosen delimiter, either under the table form (sortable), that can be exported to a spreadsheet like Excel.

CSV is the abbreviation of Comma-separated values, where values are delimited with a comma ,.

TSV is the abbreviation of Tabulation-separated values, where values are delimited with a tabulation character ↹.

The choice of separator is important: it must be distinct and not appear in the data fields themselves, to avoid confusion when reading.

There is no universal separator. Depending on the context, a user may encounter commas (,), semicolons (;), slashes (/), or other symbols.

Each line of the file corresponds to a record, and each value, separated by the chosen character, represents a column in the data table.

The most common separators for delimiting values:

— Comma ,: most commonly used (CSV)

— Semicolon ;: used in Europe where the comma is used for decimals in numbers.

— Tab ⭾

— Space : simple, but not very visible

— Bar/Pipe |

— \n (line break)

— \0 (null)