JSON is a commonly used file format for NoSQL databases, such as MongoDB, Couchbase, and Azure Cosmos DB.

JSON supports lists of objects, helping to avoid messy translations of lists into a relational data model.

Most programming languages provide native support for deserializing JSON into objects, or provide lightweight JSON serialization libraries.

JSON maintains hierarchical structures, making it easier to hold related data in a single document and represent complex relationships.

JSON-formatted files have several benefits over CSV: Both are self-describing and human readable, but JSON documents tend to be much smaller, leading to their popular use in online data exchange, especially with the advent of REST-based web services. JSON is often compared to XML, as both are capable of storing data in hierarchical format, with child data represented inline with its parent. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) data is represented as key-value pairs in a semi-structured format. This makes it easier to work with the data, by offering options to query against it and store the information in a more efficient data format for faster processing.

Similarly, most batch and stream data processing engines, such as Spark and Hadoop, natively support serializing and deserializing CSV-formatted files and offer ways to apply a schema on read. For example, database and spreadsheet programs can import and export CSV files. Files in CSV format may use other delimiters besides commas, such as tabs or spaces.ĭespite their limitations, CSV files are a popular choice for data exchange, because they are supported by a wide range of business, consumer, and scientific applications. Data relationships are typically handled with multiple CSV files, where foreign keys are stored in columns of one or more files, but the relationships between those files are not expressed by the format itself. This is due to the fact that CSVs cannot naturally represent hierarchical or relational data. They typically contain a header row that provides column names for the data, but are otherwise considered semi-structured. About CSV formatĬSV (comma-separated values) files are commonly used to exchange tabular data between systems in plain text.

CSV and JSON are likely the most common formats used for ingesting, exchanging, and storing unstructured or semi-structured data.

Csv to json