Formatfrom

Formatfrom is a term used in data processing to describe a component or function that converts input data from a specified source format into a canonical internal representation used by a system. It is often contrasted with formatto, which writes data from the internal representation to a target format.

Formatfrom enables data ingestion from multiple formats in a single pipeline. By decoupling the parsing logic from downstream processing, it allows an application to accept JSON, XML, CSV, or other formats through a uniform interface.

Design and implementation typically involve pluggable adapters, stateless parsers, and robust error handling. A formatfrom module usually registers parsers by format name and exposes a consistent API that yields a canonical object model, sometimes with optional metadata preservation.

In practice, a typical usage pattern is to call formatfrom with the source format and content, producing an internal representation that downstream components can consume. For example, formatfrom('CSV', data, {header: true}) returns a structured record set in the system's canonical form.

Relation to formatto: formatfrom reads and normalizes input, formatto writes data from the canonical form to a target format. The distinction supports extensibility in data pipelines and encourages clear separation between parsing and serialization concerns.

Limitations: success depends on available parsers; ambiguity or loss of source-specific metadata may occur; performance overhead is a consideration in streaming scenarios.

See also: data serialization, data pipeline, parser, ETL. The term is largely used in theoretical discussions and in some framework documentation as an example of format-aware data processing.