CSV and JSON converter: questions and guides
Each guide here answers one question with a practical example, then takes you to the tool to try it yourself. Guides: 13.
Questions
- How to convert CSV to JSON and backHow to convert a table of products or orders from CSV to JSON and back, why numbers stay as text by default, and how to open old Arabic Excel exports.
- I converted JSON to CSV, but Excel shows each row in one column. Should I pick semicolon?If Excel crams every row of your CSV into one cell, the delimiter is the likely cause. When to choose semicolon for JSON to CSV, and why decimal prices stay intact.
- Why did an apostrophe appear in front of phone numbers starting with +966 in my exported CSV?Numbers that start with + get a leading ' in the exported CSV because of the Excel formula protection option. When to keep it and when to switch it off.
- Can a customer name or order note contain a formula that runs when I open the CSV in Excel?Text a customer types into a name or order note can start with = and be read by Excel as a formula. How the default protection stops it, and what it leaves alone.
- A customer address with a comma shifted the values across a whole row. How do I spot and fix it?An address like Dubai, Marina without quotes splits one cell into two and pushes the rest along. How to read the extra-fields warning and __parsed_extra, then fix it.
- A product description with an inch mark, like a 55" screen, makes the conversion fail. What is the fix?A size like 55" inside a quoted cell stops the conversion with a quote error. When the mark is a problem, why it must be doubled, and how to fix the row named.
- My orders JSON has a different number of items in each order. Should I flatten them into columns or keep them in one cell?When each order has a different number of items, flattening adds columns to fit the longest order. When to flatten and when to keep items as JSON text in one cell.
- My sheet has two columns both called price. Why did one of them get a different name in the JSON?A JSON object cannot hold the same key twice, so a repeated column gets a number added. What exactly happens, where the note appears, and why to name columns first.
- My supplier's CSV has no header row. How do I convert it to JSON without losing the first data row?Without a header row, the first data line becomes the key names and vanishes from the result. Untick 'First row holds column names' to get one array per row.
- Can I copy cells from Google Sheets or Excel and paste them straight in to get JSON?Cells copied from a spreadsheet paste as tab-separated text, and auto-detect recognises it. How to get JSON from your sheet without saving a CSV file first.
- The tool says the problem is in row 5, but line 5 in my editor looks fine. Where is the error really?Cells with line breaks inside quotes, such as two-line addresses, make record numbers drift from editor line numbers. How to find the right row quickly.
- I have a JSON list of emails. How do I turn it into a single CSV column?An array of simple values, like a list of emails, is written to CSV as one column headed value. How to get it, and why mixing strings and objects is refused.
- I converted an API response to CSV and got one row with dozens of columns instead of one row per order. Why?A response wrapped in an outer object such as count and orders is a single object, so it becomes one row. Paste only the inner array to get a row per order.