frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Show HN: Convert Large CSV/XLSX to JSON or XML in Browser

https://csvforge.com
41•Botlabs•12mo ago
Hello HN, I'm excited to share a project I've been working on: A simple, fast way to process huge CSV and XLSX files directly in your browser and export them as clean JSON or XML

Here's a few things that makes this converter different: - runs in the browser - all parsing and conversion is client side can handle data any size data - automatically detects delimiters, encodings, and data types as it parses - Live preview with column renaming, search/replace, and data cleanup - Export to JSON or XML — clean, structured output that can be used for API or Databases

backstory: I built this tool for myself. I work with massive CSV and TXT files, some over 10GB, and opening them in Excel would freeze my laptop, some of the online converters only limits to a certain size, so I started learning Python and pandas but ended up wasting so much time trying different delimiters or fixing badly structured data just to make it usable, and I thought this would be a really fun project to build

I'd love some feedback. Thank you

URL: https://csvforge.com

Comments

sverhagen•12mo ago
"Runs in the browser" and "client side" isn't as much of a selling point to me as it's made out to be. It's a claim that I can't really validate until it's too late. If it's a commercial service I'm going to have to pay for, then maybe you should go all the way in gaining my trust with whatever safeguards it takes, so that I no longer care if I upload my data to your server or not.
rustc•12mo ago
> then maybe you should go all the way in gaining my trust with whatever safeguards it takes

What kind of safeguards are possible with a web app?

sverhagen•12mo ago
I think this comes down to legally-enforceable contracts with some teeth. A lot of business seem okay to trust Google's cloud products, or Microsoft's? I think as private person with limited means for litigation, you're likely sol.
hahn-kev•12mo ago
Yeah I really wish there was a way for this to be enforced by the browser that the end user could trust. It would have to be a standard, but outside of opening dev tools and toggling offline mode there's no way to be sure.

The funny thing is that it feels safer to download a desktop app and give it the same data even though it's usually much harder to validate if it's shipping your data somewhere else.

strogonoff•12mo ago
There’s a cheap trick to make sure a website that claims to do everything client-side actually does everything client-side:

1. Open the site in an incognito window.

2. Turn off your Internet.

3. Do what you’ve got to do.

4. Close browser window.

As a bonus, and this makes it better than just flipping the offline switch in developer tools, if you turn off Internet in a way that keeps the browser thinking it’s online, you can also peek at whether any network requests are made (for pathological cases where the app does everything locally but phones home anyway).

Botlabs•12mo ago
Sure, but you can validate it dev tools exist for a reason. Honestly, I just can’t afford the storage costs if users are uploading 50GB+ CSVs. It’d be a huge strain on any server, not to mention painfully slow for users. Running everything client side was the easiest and most practical way to build this MVP at least for me thanks for the feedback
o11c•12mo ago
"Large" generally means "bigger than RAM"; 10GB is medium-sized these days since it fits in most people's RAM. Does the browser actually have the (web worker?) APIs needed to stream and "upload" and "download"?
shubhamjain•12mo ago
I don't get it. Are JSON and XML files more friendly to import vs CSV files? I always assumed CSVs were the standard. Any reasons to prefer structured formats?

Shameless plug: I am working on a similar problem of Excel not being a great tool for large datasets. My desktop app[1] lets you import raw data files and query them using SQL. (The website needs to be updated, the app looks much better than the current screenshots).

[1]: https://textquery.app

Botlabs•12mo ago
yes they are a lot easier to work with when inserting into the database
snappr021•12mo ago
This type of thing is fairly trivial to create with ChatGPT running entirely locally in HTML.

A couple of kb of open standard vanilla js that does some simple things faster than legacy spreadsheets etc ever could.

Even to the point of creating invoices, reports etc based on standard filters stored in local storage…

oschvr•12mo ago
Looks like you made it in lovable. It has that characteristic UI.

If so, how much time did it take you?

Botlabs•12mo ago
thanks for your comment, it took me almost 3 weeks to build this
constantcrying•12mo ago
I think it should go without saying, but never use this with anything more relevant than a hobby project.

Doing this with any kind of data you don't fully own (e.g. data from your company) is a terrible idea, from so many standpoints. That it is "allegedly" running locally is not making it much better.

I think my question to OP is, who is this for. Any developer can write up a convert for his own datasets, in basically any case I can think of where you are handling large amounts of data you are building a pipeline to do cleanup, renaming, conversion, etc. Who wants to have a part of that pipeline be uploading the data into the browser?

The Copernican Model Was More Simple

https://jonasanksher.substack.com/p/the-copernican-model-actually-was
1•paulpauper•44s ago•0 comments

Most Swiss back initiative to cap population at 10M

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/most-swiss-back-initiative-cap-population-10-million-poll-sh...
1•baal80spam•53s ago•0 comments

Show HN

https://github.com/alexjbarnes/cockpit
1•recouptreadmill•1m ago•0 comments

Hi, looking for Tester for my TD game

https://testflight.apple.com/join/unh5x9Vh
2•pompeii•4m ago•1 comments

US accuses China of industrial-scale AI model distillation, will share Intel

https://thenextweb.com/news/us-white-house-ai-model-distillation-china-theft
2•gmays•5m ago•0 comments

MCP server that lets agents get human opinions in real-time

https://github.com/impel-intelligence/datapoint-mcp
1•chancemehmu•6m ago•0 comments

'Metajets' could allow future spaceships to be propelled by nothing but light

https://newatlas.com/space-systems/metajets-light-propelled-spaceships/
1•breve•7m ago•0 comments

I benchmarked Claude Code's caveman plugin against "be brief."

https://www.maxtaylor.me/articles/i-benchmarked-caveman-against-two-words
1•max-t-dev•10m ago•0 comments

SYNQ – Give ChatGPT and Claude permanent, local memory

1•Tamatarr•10m ago•0 comments

Agent-Augmented Meetings (2003)

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4419-9200-0_2
2•thatxliner•11m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Are you OK with DeepSeek and other labs reading your data?

1•davidbjaffe•12m ago•0 comments

First USMC MQ-58 Valkyrie CCA Drones to Arrive in 2029

https://www.twz.com/air/first-usmc-mq-58-valkyrie-cca-drones-to-arrive-in-2029
1•breve•12m ago•0 comments

Why everyone is quietly quitting OpenClaw [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urAMvpPhtqo
1•nvahalik•12m ago•0 comments

China Is America's Military Equal Now and in Future Fights, Marine General Warns

https://www.twz.com/sea/china-is-americas-military-equal-now-and-in-any-future-fight-marine-gener...
2•breve•15m ago•0 comments

Mac Studio: Anything > 96GB of RAM Is Unavailable

https://tapbots.social/@paul/116489066337152245
1•doener•15m ago•0 comments

I accidentally made law enforcement shut down their fake honeypot

https://lina.sh/blog/ddos-honeypot
3•fishgoesblub•17m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Free tool to verify legal citations

https://secondseat.ai/verify
1•gabelev•18m ago•0 comments

Stock trading: focus on value, not price

https://smartmoneyguides.quora.com/
1•hennix22•18m ago•0 comments

Trading Agents – Multi-Agent LLM Financial Trading Network

https://github.com/TauricResearch/TradingAgents
1•rmason•19m ago•0 comments

The Angine de Poitrine Argument for UBI

https://www.scottsantens.com/the-angine-de-poitrine-argument-for-ubi/
1•doener•25m ago•0 comments

Technological Substitution and the Potential Phase-Out of Human Reproduction

https://tommyfalk567.substack.com/p/technological-substitution-and-the
1•TommyFalk•25m ago•0 comments

TSMC SoIC 3D stacking roadmap outlines path from 6-micron pitches to 4.5 in 2029

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/tsmc-soic-3d-stacking-roadmap-outlines-...
1•rbanffy•25m ago•0 comments

US House Probes Airbnb, Anysphere (Cursor) Use of Chinese Models

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-29/us-house-probes-airbnb-anysphere-s-use-of-chin...
1•htrp•27m ago•0 comments

What Is Real

https://claude2028.org/the-work/what-is-real
1•xqueenofswordsx•27m ago•0 comments

A Simple Technique for Overlapping IRQ Handlers

https://trident64.github.io/overlapping-irq-handlers/
1•adunk•29m ago•0 comments

Artemis II Photo Timeline

https://artemistimeline.com/#artemis-ii-walkout-nhq202604010003
3•geerlingguy•33m ago•0 comments

Gemma 4 architecture support for QVAC-Fabric (Tether's llama.cpp fork)

https://github.com/tinmanlabsl/qvac-gemma4-patch
1•oliveskin•35m ago•0 comments

Using a 1978 terminal in 2026 (DEC VT-100) · Nikhil Jha

https://nikhiljha.com/posts/vt100/
1•rbanffy•37m ago•0 comments

Commodore 64 Ultimate Line-Up Expands with C64C Edition Later This Year

https://commodore.net/c-you-soon-commodore-64-ultimate-line-up-expands-with-c64c-edition-later-th...
4•rbanffy•38m ago•0 comments

Show HN: UART Terminal – Web-based serial terminal using WebSerial API

https://github.com/baturyilmaz/uartterminal.com
1•arbayi•39m ago•0 comments