Data, Spreadsheet & Archive Converter

Spreadsheets and archives travel between programs all the time: a CSV export from an online shop needs to go into Excel, an Excel list has to become JSON for an app, and a RAR archive should open without extra software. Here are the matching converters on wandlio.

CSV, JSON and Excel files are converted right in your browser, so the file is not uploaded. The PDF conversions and RAR to ZIP run on our servers in Germany: the file is sent over HTTPS and deleted right after conversion. Spreadsheets often contain personal data, so consider removing columns you don't need before uploading.

All data and archive converters

“Browser” means the conversion runs in your browser with no upload – your file stays on your device. “Server” means the file is sent over an encrypted connection (HTTPS) to our servers in Germany and deleted right after conversion.

CSV and Excel

Turn a CSV file into an Excel workbook, or export an Excel sheet as a CSV that many programs can import.

Convert CSV to Excel Browser
Convert Excel to CSV Browser

CSV and JSON

Apps and APIs exchange data as JSON, while CSV is made for tables. Nested JSON doesn't map neatly onto the flat rows of a CSV: wandlio writes nested fields as separate columns with a dot (such as address.city) and lists as JSON text, so check such fields after converting.

Convert CSV to JSON Browser
Convert JSON to CSV Browser

Spreadsheets and PDF

Send Excel sheets as PDF, or pull tables out of a PDF back into Excel with OCR – then double-check numbers and columns.

Convert Excel to PDF Server
Convert PDF to Excel Server

CSV, Excel or JSON – which one fits?

All three can hold similar data, but they serve different purposes.

If you want to …	Format	Watch out for
exchange data between arbitrary programs	CSV	there is no binding standard; RFC 4180 documents the common form with commas and double quotes
keep formulas, formatting or several sheets	XLSX	Excel's Office Open XML format (ECMA-376)
hand data to an app or API	JSON	RFC 8259 requires UTF-8 for JSON exchanged between systems
open a CSV in Excel in a locale with a decimal comma	CSV with semicolons	Excel takes the list separator from your regional settings; where the comma is the decimal separator, it usually separates columns with semicolons
show accented or special characters correctly in Excel	UTF-8 with BOM	according to Microsoft, Excel opens a UTF-8 CSV with a BOM correctly; otherwise import it via Data › From Text/CSV
open an archive without extra software	ZIP	Microsoft says Windows 11 version 24H2 also reads RAR and 7z – except encrypted archives

Data formats explained

CSV: Comma-separated values: records on separate lines, fields separated by commas; fields containing commas, quotes or line breaks are wrapped in double quotes (RFC 4180). CSV has no formatting and no formulas.
XLSX: An Excel workbook in Office Open XML (ECMA-376, ISO/IEC 29500): a package of XML files holding sheets, formulas and formatting.
JSON: JavaScript Object Notation (RFC 8259): a text format built from objects and arrays of strings, numbers, true, false and null.
ZIP: The widespread archive format that Windows can create and extract in File Explorer.
RAR: WinRAR's archive format. Windows 11 has been able to read RAR since an update in October 2023; on older Windows versions, ZIP is the safe bet.

Check after converting

Before you keep working with the data, check special characters, leading zeros (in postcodes, for example) and dates: spreadsheet programs interpret such values in different ways.

Guides

On data protection when converting files, and on when a file gets uploaded:

All guides on the blog

Related categories

Convert PDFs & documents
Save Excel and Word files as PDF, or recover tables from a PDF with OCR.
Convert video
Subtitle files (SRT and WebVTT) are with the video converters.