csvspecs / csv-next

Better Comma-Separated Values (CSV) Notes - V1.1 Is The New V2.0 - Let's Evolve What Works

Better Comma-Separated Values (CSV) Format Notes

Why?

Let's make the comma-separated values (CSV) format better. Why? Because it's great and it can be greater!

What's great about CSV?

• Simple
• Plain text

barcelona, Barcelona|FC Barcelona|F.C. Barcelona|Fútbol Club Barcelona,    BAR,     city:barcelona
madrid,    R. Madrid|Real Madrid|Real Madrid CF|Real Madrid Club de Fútbol,  RMD,       city:madrid

What's missing?

• No comments
• No blank lines
• No multi-line records
• No data types (or text patterns or field tags / markers e.g. km2 or % or ° or similar)
• No unordered fields (that is, fields depend on position) or variable number of fields per record
• No groups

Extras

• Comments
• Magic
  • Types
    • Names -- Brussel • Bruxelles [de]
    • Numbers -- 12.3m, 13.4k
    • Units -- km2, hl, %, etc.
    • Properties n Attributes -- city:barcelona, wikipedia:Barcelona
    • Keys -- first field
    • Tags -- last field
  • Files n Folders
  • Groups n Headers

-- add page/entry for multi line style -- e.g. use MULTI.md? or RECORDS.md? -- add spaces, commas n quotes page (incl. escape, tab rules ..) ?? -- e.g. SPACE.md ? -- add COMMENTS_ALT.md -- e.g. move alternative (not-supported) styles/ideas

Comments

Example:

#################################################
# Primera División de España - La Liga 2013/14

barcelona, Barcelona|FC Barcelona|F.C. Barcelona|Fútbol Club Barcelona,    BAR,     city:barcelona
...

End-of-Line Comments

Blank Lines

Example:

barcelona, Barcelona|FC Barcelona|F.C. Barcelona|Fútbol Club Barcelona,    BAR,     city:barcelona
espanyol,  Espanyol|RCD Espanyol|R.C.D. Espanyol|Espanyol Barcelona|Real CD Espanyol|Real Club Deportivo Espanyol|Real Club Deportivo Español,  ESP, city:barcelona

madrid,    R. Madrid|Real Madrid|Real Madrid CF|Real Madrid Club de Fútbol,  RMD,       city:madrid
atletico,  Atlético|Atlético Madrid|Club Atlético de Madrid,   ATL,              city:madrid
...

Multi-line Records

Ideas

Option 1: 2nd (3rd and so on) lines starting with three dots e.g. ... followed by at least one non-space character

Option 2: 2nd line starting with three spaces followed by at least one non-space character

Unordered Fields

Others?

Alternative (Plain Text) Formats

• XML (Extensible Markup Language)
• JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)
• YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language - formerly Yet Another Markup Language)
• PROPS (key value pairs)
• INI (key value pairs plus sections)
• TOML (key value pairs plus sections plus data types, that is, arrays, bools, dates, etc.)
• SEXPS (S-Expressions, that is, symbolic expressions - Lisp-style)
• RDF Triplets (Resource Description Framework)
• HTML Microformat

XML

• Supports Comments - Yes
• Supports Blank Lines - Yes
• Supports Unordered Fields - Yes
• Supports Multi-line Records - Yes
• Supports Data Types - No (Everything is a String/Text)

Cons:

• Verbose (compared to CSV, that is, requires header for every record and field)

JSON

• Supports Comments - ???
• Supports Blank Lines - Yes
• Supports Unordered Fields - Yes
• Supports Multi-line Records - Yes

Cons:

• Verbose (requires quoted strings, requires array or hash envelope)
• Programming language-oriented (e.g. uses {},[], etc.)

More JSON Formats: See Awesome JSON - What's Next? »

YAML

Cons:

• Tabs (\t) not allowed/supported; break reader/documents

TOML

Cons:

• Requires quoted strings

Others?