JSON to CSV Conversion Guide
Converting JSON to CSV is a common task when moving data into spreadsheets and analytics tools. CSV is tabular, while JSON is hierarchical. The most reliable conversions start from a JSON array of flat objects, but you can also flatten nested objects or encode complex values as JSON strings. This guide shows you the options available in our JSON to CSV tool, how to handle nested data, inconsistencies in keys, and locale-specific delimiters.
Workflow
- Validate your JSON and ensure it is an array of objects.
- Open the JSON to CSV tool and paste your data.
- Enable Include Headers to generate a header row from keys.
- Enable Flatten Nested Objects to convert nested objects to dot notation (e.g.
user.name). - Click Convert, then copy or download the CSV.
Handling Nested Data
If your objects contain nested structures, turn on Flatten Nested Objects. For example, {"user":{"name":"Alice"}} becomes a single row with a column user.name. Arrays can be stringified or normalized depending on your target system’s needs. If arrays represent repeating rows, consider pre-processing to “explode” them into multiple rows.
Inconsistent Keys
When records have different sets of keys, the union of all keys becomes the final header set. Missing values produce empty cells. For clean outputs, normalize keys and data types beforehand, and keep key naming consistent across objects.
Delimiters and Quoting
CSV typically uses commas, but some locales prefer semicolons. If you are unsure which delimiter your data uses, try our CSV Delimiter Detector. Values containing commas, quotes, or newlines will be automatically quoted and internal quotes doubled per RFC 4180.
Alternatives
- For streaming or logs, try NDJSON which stores one JSON object per line.
- For programmatic pipelines, staying in JSON end‑to‑end may be simpler.