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•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo ago
yes they are a lot easier to work with when inserting into the database
snappr021•11mo 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•11mo ago
Looks like you made it in lovable. It has that characteristic UI.

If so, how much time did it take you?

Botlabs•11mo ago
thanks for your comment, it took me almost 3 weeks to build this
constantcrying•11mo 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?

Analyzing 38,000 Dota games to see if this item helps [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYE3RUyzHlE
1•marysminefnuf•4m ago•0 comments

Cc-plugin-audit: Defensive supply-chain security analysis on plugin auto-update

https://github.com/STRML/cc-plugin-audit
1•Sottilde•5m ago•0 comments

The College Student–and His Cat Meme–Who Hunted the Biggest Cyberweapon

https://www.wsj.com/tech/kimwolf-hack-residential-proxy-networks-a712ab59
2•lakoshi•10m ago•0 comments

Change your Google Account username in a few simple steps

https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/workspace/google-account-username-change/
2•brie22•11m ago•0 comments

CDC Pauses Testing for Rabies and Pox Viruses

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/health/cdc-rabies-mpox-tests-paused.html
3•detaro•12m ago•1 comments

Being the Adult in the Room

https://tailscale.com/blog/adult-in-the-room
4•bumbledraven•15m ago•0 comments

Backblaze updated Terms of Service (2026)

https://www.backblaze.com/company/policy/terms-of-service-2026
2•anonred•16m ago•1 comments

US-Israeli bombing destroys oldest medical research center in Iran

https://www.egyptindependent.com/us-israeli-bombing-destroys-oldest-medical-research-center-in-ir...
9•OutOfHere•19m ago•1 comments

AI Applications and Vertical Integration

https://www.tanayj.com/p/ai-applications-and-vertical-integration
2•gmays•26m ago•0 comments

DropSmith – MCP server for structured NPC dialogue generation

https://github.com/holmesclaw-hash/dropsmith
3•dropsmith•30m ago•0 comments

Science confirms torpedo [baseball] bat works as well as regular bat

https://news.wsu.edu/press-release/2026/04/02/science-confirms-torpedo-bat-works-as-well-as-regul...
2•Magi604•32m ago•0 comments

Microsoft wants Edge to automatically open by default at Windows 11 boot

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-wants-edge-to-automatically-open-by...
4•tech234a•33m ago•2 comments

EmDash Feedback

https://ma.tt/2026/04/emdash-feedback/
5•batuhanicoz•42m ago•0 comments

Any-GPU: my AMD 5700 XT OC can EARN IT's rent using Debian Trixie+Vulkan

https://github.com/cochranblock/any-gpu
2•cochranblock•42m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Procfile-compatible tool with hot reload, readiness, dependencies, etc.

https://github.com/alecthomas/proctor
2•alecthomas•43m ago•0 comments

Expi – Media Converter

https://getexpi.app
3•philematic•43m ago•0 comments

Trump administration sues 3 states over attempts to regulate prediction markets

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/02/nx-s1-5771635/trump-cftc-kalshi-polymarket-lawsuits
6•razorbeamz•46m ago•1 comments

Fine-Tuning Large Language Models LLMs with a Production-Grade Pipeline (2023)

https://alex000kim.com/posts/2023-09-08-finetune-llm-pipeline-dvc-skypilot/
2•teleforce•49m ago•0 comments

Leapstack-vn-data-breach-approximately-100-GB-of-health-insurance-claims

https://medium.com/@infosec_chu/leapstack-vn-data-breach-approximately-100-gb-of-health-insurance...
2•tryee•51m ago•0 comments

The Technocracy Movement of the 1930s

https://donotresearch.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-technocracy
3•lazydogbrownfox•52m ago•0 comments

Period – 11M params car parking model

https://therefore.sh/projects/period
2•LorenDB•53m ago•0 comments

'A System Rigged': Untaxed Wealth of Richest 0.1% More Than Poorest Half

https://www.commondreams.org/news/global-tax-havens-inequality
10•ZunarJ5•56m ago•0 comments

EPA Targets Microplastics and Drugs in Drinking Water

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/climate/microplastics-maha-epa.html
2•lxm•56m ago•0 comments

Jobs Being Created by AI

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/wanted-head-of-human-ai-solutions-the-new-jobs-being-created-by-ai-87...
3•Jimmc414•56m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Can I say, "Thank You"?

4•ghastmaster•57m ago•0 comments

A tool to help product write better specs

https://www.clearspec.dev
2•mikopiko•59m ago•0 comments

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Cash Transfers

https://nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/the-unreasonable-effectiveness-of
3•paulpauper•59m ago•0 comments

How to Mirror from Sourcehut to GitHub

https://timharek.no/blog/mirror-sourcehut-to-github/
3•netule•1h ago•0 comments

Every dependency you add is a supply chain attack waiting to happen

https://benhoyt.com/writings/dependencies/
5•signa11•1h ago•0 comments

Rancho Gordo trademarks 'bean club,' tells others to stop using it

https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/rancho-gordo-bean-club-trademark-22071347.php
2•littlexsparkee•1h ago•0 comments