CSVlike

CSVlike refers to a family of plain-text formats for representing tabular data in which each line corresponds to a record and fields within the line are separated by a delimiter. Unlike a single standardized specification, CSVlike encompasses multiple variants that share core concepts but differ in delimiter choice, quoting rules, and escape mechanisms. The most common delimiter is a comma, but tabs, semicolons, or pipes are also used. Fields may be quoted to allow embedded delimiters or line breaks; quotes within quoted fields are typically escaped by doubling the quote character or by using an escape character. Line endings and character encoding (often UTF-8) are not fixed by the format and may vary by implementation.

Core features typically include an optional header line that provides field names, support for empty fields, and the option to include or omit a trailing delimiter. Some CSVlike variants support comments, multi-line fields, or metadata lines at the start of the file. Example:

name,age,city

Alice,30,"New York"

Parsing generally relies on configurable parameters, and most programming languages offer libraries that can parse CSVlike data when the delimiter and quoting rules are specified. Because there is no single standard, interoperability often requires documenting the exact rules used, including delimiter, quote character, and escape conventions.

CSVlike is widely used for data exchange, data export/import, and lightweight configuration due to its simplicity and human readability. However, users should be aware of potential incompatibilities between implementations and specify rules clearly when exchanging data.

See also: CSV, TSV, Delimited text, RFC 4180.