Convert CSV files to Fixed Width or ASCII Table

CSV to Fixed width has just become easier!

Fixed-width format arranges data in columns, and every row and column is the same length. This format is easier to read and interfaces well with legacy systems.

  • 20+ Custom Built in parameters to make customizing easy
  • You choose the fields and width, optionally create a ruler at top of output
  • Easily Control the design of the output file
  • API Design allows you to pass a local file, simple CSV string, or Web URL
  • Extendable to external APIs by passing credentials or OATH
  • Full Documentation and example usage

You must have an API token to call our APIs. You are automatically assigned one upon registering and confirming your email. See our tutorial: Two Methods of API Authentication and Example Use below that demonstrate passing your token to our server. You must substitute your token found in the Account page in place of [YOUR TOKEN]. Also, use your data file name instead of [YOUR FILE], i.e. invoices.csv. All conversion APIs require the infile parameter since it is the data you are converting.
Note that to read from an S3 bucket that requires authorization, you must pass both username and password parameters, and the URL must start with s3://.
There is a 80MB limit on input. You may however zip your input file and use it for infile.

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Resulting curl command:

Parameter Value Type Description Example Use
infile


string This is the input file: raw data, or URL. Choose one of the options of "Local File", "URL", or "Data" curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2json/" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
string Alignment of output columns, righ or left based on output position, i.e. LRL curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?align=LLRL" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
string File encoding - if not passed, the converter will attempt to determine the encoding by looking at the first few thousand bytes of the file. Typical values are: utf-8, utf-16. You can see a list of all supported types here: https://docs.python.org/3/library/codecs.html curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?encoding=ascii" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
string Exclude these fields in conversion. Use this if you want to convert all fields except these. curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?exclude=5" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
string Do not output NULL for NULL in these fields. Many CSV files have NULL for NULL fields in a database table. The default is to convert those to NULL in SQL for instance, or null in JSON, however, NULL can be a legitimate value. Use this option to exclude fields from the default conversion. curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?exnulls=5" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
string Include these fields in conversion. You specify fields by their position, starting at 1. If you wanted the first 5 fields, you can type 1,2,3,4,5 or 1-5. The default is to include all fields. curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?fields=1,2,3" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
integer Limit number of output records to N, i.e. 100. If you have a large output file, use this option to limit your output. curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?limit=10" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
string Output lower case for these fields curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?lower=6" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
boolean Input CSV file has no column headings curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?noheader=1" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
string Convert 'NULL' to a NULL SQL value or null JSON value. Many popular tools export the string NULL in place of NULL values in tables. By default, the converter will convert ALL NULL values to a NULL SQL value or null JSON value. If you use this option, only the fields specified will be converted. See also exnulls. curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?nulls=1,5,6" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
string Padding character for fixed width fields, default is space curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?padchar=%2A" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
string Password for URL data source curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?password=bob&username=bee" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
boolean Create a ruler at the top when outputting Fixed Width. This is very useful to see column positions. curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?ruler=1" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
string Output separator between fields for fixed width. For instance, you may want to see a vertical bar separating fields. curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -F separator="|" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
integer Skip/Ignore N record at top of input file. You may have a CSV file with empty lines or extra verbiage at the top. Use this option to skip those lines. curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?skiplines=2" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
boolean TAB is the CSV file delimiter curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?tab=1" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
boolean Generate ASCII table curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?table=1" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
string Output upper case for these fields curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed=4,5" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -F "upper=1-4" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
string Username for URL data source. This is only used when URLs are the data source. See password also. curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?username=johnny&password=xyz" -F "infile=https://www.xyz.com/myinputfile.csv" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
string If using -F, Field widths corresponding to output columns, ex. 5,20,10 curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?width=5,20,10" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
boolean Input file is an Excel file with either .xlsx or .xls extension. If your column headers do not start on line 1, then use the "skiplines" option to skip to the header or data. curl -X POST "https://www.convertcsv.io/api/v1/csv2fixed?xin=1" -F "infile=@[YOUR FILE]" -H "Authorization: Token [YOUR TOKEN]"
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