.DSV File Extension
Delimiter-Separated Values File
| Developer | N/A |
| Popularity |
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| Category | Data Files |
| Format | Text |
A DSV file may also be a delimiter-separated values file, which contains a plain text data set divided into "columns" and "rows." Columns are defined using a comma, tab, semi-colon, or other delimiting special character. Rows are defined using newlines. DSV files are more commonly saved as .CSV (Comma-Separated Values) or .TSV (Tab-Separated Values) files.
DSV files are useful for saving large, tabular data sets in a plain text format. Any user can open a DSV file in a text editor to view the data set it contains. More commonly, users import DSV files into spreadsheet and statistic programs, to view the data they contain in a more intelligible format.
The first line in a DSV file typically defines the data included in each of the data set's columns. For example, the first line of a DSV file might read "Date","Vendor","Amount Paid". The next line (and following lines) typically list values associated with those columns, such as "October 29 2012","FileInfo.com","$5,125".
Unlike CSV and TSV files, which respectively always contain comma-separated and tab-separated values, DSV files can contain data separated by any sort of special character. Some common examples include colons (:), semi-colons (;), and pipes (|). However, most DSV files use commas or tabs as their delimiting character.
How to open a DSV file
You can open a DSV file and view the text it contains in any text editor, such as Microsoft Notepad (Windows) or Apple TextEdit (Mac).
If your DSV file contains comma-separated values or tab-separated values, you can also open it in Microsoft Excel (multiplatform), Apple Numbers (Mac), LibreOffice Calc (multiplatform), and other spreadsheet programs. To do so, you must change the file's extension from .dsv to .csv or .tsv. Then, you can open the file as you would any CSV or TSV file.