Tab-separated values
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:Use dmy datesTab-separated values (TSV) is a simple, text-based file format for storing tabular data.[1] Records are separated by newlines, and values within a record are separated by tab characters. The TSV format is thus a delimiter-separated values format, similar to comma-separated values.
TSV is a simple file format that is widely supported, so it is often used in data exchange 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 to a spreadsheet.
Example
The head of the Iris flower data set can be stored as a TSV using the following plain text (note that the HTML rendering may convert tabs to spaces):
The TSV plain text above corresponds to the following tabular data:
| Sepal length | Sepal width | Petal length | Petal width | Species |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | 3.5 | 1.4 | 0.2 | I. setosa |
| 4.9 | 3.0 | 1.4 | 0.2 | I. setosa |
| 4.7 | 3.2 | 1.3 | 0.2 | I. setosa |
| 4.6 | 3.1 | 1.5 | 0.2 | I. setosa |
| 5.0 | 3.6 | 1.4 | 0.2 | I. setosa |
Character escaping
The IANA media type standard for TSV achieves simplicity by simply disallowing tabs within fields.Template:Sfn
Since the values in the TSV format cannot contain literal tabs or newline characters, a convention is necessary for lossless conversion of text values with these characters. A common convention is to perform the following escapes:[2][3]
| escape sequence | meaning |
|---|---|
\n
|
line feed |
\t
|
tab |
\r
|
carriage return |
\\
|
backslash |
Another common convention is to use the CSV convention from Template:IETF RFC and enclose values containing tabs or newlines in double quotes. This can lead to ambiguities.[4][5]
Line endings
Records are typically separated by a line feed, as is typical for Unix platforms, or a carriage return and line feed, as is typical for Microsoft platforms. Some programs may expect the latter. The de-facto specification[6] specifies that records are separated by an Template:Mono, but does not specify any specific newline.
See also
References
Sources
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Further reading
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