Spreadsheet formats guide
Compare XLSX, CSV, TSV, and ODS — understand when a plain CSV is better than Excel, and when you genuinely need a full spreadsheet format.
| Format | Compression | Formulas | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| XLSX | ZIP (XML inside) | Yes | Financial models, reports, Excel users |
| CSV | None | No | Data exchange, databases, APIs, Python/R |
| TSV | None | No | Data with commas in fields, bioinformatics |
| ODS | ZIP (XML inside) | Yes | LibreOffice, open-source workflows |
Use CSV when: you need to import data into a database (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite all have native CSV import), you're feeding data into Python (pandas), R, or any data science tool, you're exchanging data with an API or web service, or you need a file that opens in any text editor and any operating system without ambiguity.
Use XLSX when: you need formulas that recalculate automatically, you need multiple sheets in one file, you're sharing with non-technical colleagues who expect to open the file in Excel, you need charts or conditional formatting, or you need cell-level comments and data validation.
Use TSV instead of CSV when: your data fields contain commas (addresses, sentences, product descriptions). A comma in a CSV field requires quoting and escaping — TSV avoids this entirely since tab characters rarely appear in data values.
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