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CSV to XLSX Converter (and back)

CSV to XLSX or an Excel sheet back out as CSV, with the separator read from the data and a wrong split refused before it reaches a workbook. Every cell stays text.

File

Paste rows, or drop a .csv

The separator is read from the data — comma, semicolon, tab or pipe

Direction

Every cell is written as text: 0074512 keeps its zeros, and 12 arrives in Excel as text until Excel is told it is a number.

First row

Untick and the top line counts as data, with columns named Column 1 onward.

Your table

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How to use

  1. Pick the Direction. CSV → XLSX heads into Excel, XLSX → CSV brings a workbook back out as text.
  2. Heading into Excel, paste rows into Paste CSV or drop a .csv. The table and the row and column count appear as soon as the data lands.
  3. Check the Separator. It is read from the data; if the split looks wrong, pick another, or choose Other… and type the one the file uses.
  4. Leave First row is header ticked when the top line names the columns. Untick it and that line counts as data, with columns named Column 1 onward.
  5. Press Convert to write the workbook, then Download. Change a setting afterwards and the button reads Convert again.
  6. Coming back out, drop the .xlsx, choose the Sheet when there is more than one, and take the CSV with Download or Copy.

About this tool

Going from CSV to XLSX is the trip you make when finance asks for the file and all you have is a plain-text export. The other direction comes up just as often, when someone sends a workbook and the script you're feeding only reads CSV. Both live on this page. Paste rows or drop a .csv and the table appears straight away, split the way the data says it should be: the separator is read from the first fifty lines, and the Separator box names what it found.

That reading matters most on European exports. A file written with semicolons and decimal commas, 1.480,00 and the like, splits into two meaningless columns if it is read on commas, and the converter will not write that workbook. It says which separator gives the steady split and offers it as one press. A caret, tilde or colon file can be typed under Other…, more than one character included. Every cell goes in as text, so an order code like 0074512 keeps its zeros, and the strip above Convert counts the rows and columns the download will hold before anything is written. Direction, separator and the header choice all ride in the page address, so a bookmark reopens the tool set the way you left it.

A semicolon export from a German office

q3-orders.csv holds 2,480 orders written with semicolons, totals like 1.480,00 and order codes like 0074512. Dropped here, the Separator reads Semicolon and the strip says 2,480 rows and 7 columns.

Convert writes q3-orders.xlsx, about 106 KB from a 139 KB file, with the codes keeping their zeros. Set the Separator to Comma by hand and the page holds Convert instead: comma splits the file into 2 columns, semicolon into 7.

What doesn't come across

  • One sheet at a time. A five-tab workbook comes out as whichever tab you picked, and the .xlsx written the other way always holds one worksheet named Sheet1.
  • A formula arrives as the value that was showing in the cell, never as the formula itself. Fills, fonts, column widths, merged cells and number formats have no equivalent in a CSV, which is why the workbook this writes looks so plain when you open it.
  • Blank lines are dropped on the way in, and the page counts them when it happens, so a spacer row between sections will not survive into the workbook.

Frequently asked questions

My CSV is separated by semicolons. Will it read?

Yes, and you should not have to say so. The separator is read from the first fifty lines and the box shows Semicolon. If someone set it to Comma by hand, the page holds Convert, says that semicolon gives the steady split, and offers it as a single press.

Why do my leading zeros survive here when Excel's own import eats them?

Excel guesses a type for each column as it imports, decides 0074512 is a number, and drops the zeros on the way. Nothing is guessed here. Every cell goes into the workbook as text, exactly as it read, which also keeps long account numbers from collapsing into scientific notation. The cost is that Excel shows numbers as text until you convert the column.

The table only shows three rows. Did the rest get dropped?

Nothing was dropped. The table is there to check the split, so it shows the first few rows; the strip above Convert counts every row that came in, and the workbook you download carries all of them.

My file uses a caret or a colon between fields. Can it be read?

Choose Other… under Separator and type it. Detection only tries comma, semicolon, tab and pipe, so anything else has to be named, and the field takes more than one character if the export uses something like a double colon.

What if my file has no header line?

Untick First row is header. Every line then counts as data and the columns get placeholder names, Column 1 through to however wide the widest row is. Rows shorter than that are padded with empty cells so the table stays square.

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