Make sense of your CSV.

Open the file in IndieCSV. It tries comma, semicolon, tab, and pipe on the first hundred records and picks the one that splits them into the most consistent columns. The result names that guess, and marks it uncertain when two candidates tie, which happens with a one column file. Override the guess in the delimiter control when you know better. A German or French export often uses a semicolon, because the comma is the decimal mark there.

The record has a different number of fields from the first record. A stray delimiter inside an unquoted value, a missing trailing column, or a line break inside a cell that was never quoted are the usual causes. IndieCSV reports the record number and both counts, and removes nothing.

The pad repair adds empty fields up to the widest record so every row has the same shape. It cannot know which column the missing value belonged to.

A quote character opened a field and never closed it, or closed it in the wrong place, so the parser cannot tell where that field ends. Every value after it is suspect. IndieCSV blocks CSV and JSON export on that kind of error rather than guess. Fix the original text, usually by doubling the inner quote as "" or closing the field, then inspect again.

A bare quote inside an unquoted field is milder: it is flagged, kept as text, and quoted on export.

A spreadsheet can read a cell that starts with =, +, -, or @ as a formula and run it when the file opens, which is the CSV injection attack. IndieCSV never evaluates anything; it only flags the cell. The optional repair prefixes such cells with an apostrophe so a spreadsheet shows them as text. That changes the value, so the preview lists every changed cell, and it is a mitigation, not a guarantee.

Because the spreadsheet guesses that 001 is the number one. The CSV itself still holds the zeros. IndieCSV keeps every cell as a string, so identifiers, postal codes, and phone numbers show exactly as written, and the export quotes every field. Excel may still convert values when you double-click the file. Import it through the text import path instead and set those columns to Text.

No, on purpose. The JSON export is an array of row arrays, and the first record is in it like any other. Keyed objects would let a duplicated header overwrite a column silently, and IndieCSV keeps duplicate headers instead of dropping them. Every value stays a string, so 001 stays "001". Map the rows to objects in your own code, where you can decide what a repeated header means.

Yes. No account, no card, no premium plan, no upgrade nag, no hidden paywall. IndieCSV is free, all of it.

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