Five Things You Should Know About JSON vs. CSV

When talking about how business is different now from the way it used to be we often refer to the impact big data has had on it. This may give the false impression that data is a single thing that always looks the same way and acts the same way. But those who work with it know very well that data comes in many different shapes and sizes. And sometimes the format in which data is stored can strongly influence its usage and value. This article aims to look at JSON and CSV – two popular data storage formats, to explore their relative benefits and use cases.

Storing and sharing

In business, we complete a variety of tasks with data. Depending on what the data is used for, some may do with it some things that others do not. But two things that we all have to with data sometimes are storing and sharing.

Before data is used, it has to be stored somewhere. And using it often entails moving it from one location to another, thus, sharing. Here is where the question of data storing format arises. The way a certain format arranges data has an effect on the data’s integrity, accessibility, and availability for usage. Some formats can be ill-suited for some types of data while others can be a perfect fit.

That is why the controversy of JSON vs. CSV is part of a bigger question – which formats should be used for what types of data. Of course, this can be decided by looking at the formats themselves.

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation and is derived from the JavaScript programming language. It is among the most popular storing and sharing formats, as it has many syntax elements, which allow to support all kinds of hierarchical relationships among the data that is stored.

CSV stands for Comma-Separated Values and stores data in a plain text format with values, as indicated in the name, separated by commas (although we will get back to this point in the next chapter). This makes CSV less powerful, but a very compact and space-saving format.

These are very basic descriptions of the two formats which only hint at which one and when should be used. The choice will be clearer when we look closer at some facts on JSON vs. CSV.

Things to know about JSON vs. CSV

Both JSON and CSV are very popular data storage formats, which means for both of them there are cases when one or the other is a great fit. The right applications for each of the formats will be seen by looking closer at them.

Here are a few things that are good and interesting to know about JSON vs. CSV.

1. JSON is used for relational data because its syntax allows to properly represent the relations between data units. Thus, if we need to store data where hierarchies and other relations must be preserved, we use JSON. In CSV files data units do not really have relations among themselves other than belonging or not belonging to the same row or column.
2. CSV is used to store tabular data, that is words and numbers in rows and columns making up a table. Most of JSON’s features are unnecessary to store such data, thus its syntax would be superfluous and inefficient here. Therefore, CSV is the most obvious choice to store data that can be sufficiently represented in a simple table.
3. Both of the names of the formats are slightly misleading. JSON refers to JavaScript programming language, but it is actually language-independent, as many languages in use can generate JSON format. And values in CSV are actually not always separated by commas. In some countries, commas are used to note decimal points. If values have commas within themselves and we would also use them to separate different values, there would be a clash between syntax and content. To avoid that, in these countries semicolons are usually used instead of commas.
4. As CSV is plain text, it is easier for humans to read the data than JSON. Of course, most of the time data would be processed by computers, but in case something needs to be checked manually, it can be done faster with CSV, as JSON’s additional syntax elements might distract the reader.
5. JSON is more scalable, meaning that content can be quite easily added and edited. Usually, there is not much one can change with CSV files without risking corrupting the content. Conversely JSON’s versatility allows to do a lot to the data that is already stored.

Concluding remarks

Thus, from what has been stated above it is easy to see that JSON vs. CSV both have their use cases. CSV is better when we have tabular data that we wish to store in a compact format, without using much space. JSON is better when we have more complicated data, and we need to preserve various relations among data units.

There are, of course, many other data formats, but combining these two for starters can cover a lot of data storing and sharing needs.