frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

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

https://csvforge.com
41•Botlabs•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y ago
yes they are a lot easier to work with when inserting into the database
snappr021•1y 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•1y ago
Looks like you made it in lovable. It has that characteristic UI.

If so, how much time did it take you?

Botlabs•1y ago
thanks for your comment, it took me almost 3 weeks to build this
constantcrying•1y 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?

Whistle: Speech to Text in 16.9 MB

https://cactuscompute.com/blog/whistle
248•gmays•2h ago•68 comments

The value of not getting to the point (2015)

https://ken.arneson.name/2015/11/the-value-of-not-getting-to-the-point/
25•NaOH•54m ago•4 comments

Show HN: K10s – A Clickable Kubernetes TUI (Go, Bubble Tea)

https://github.com/p10node/k10s
43•pierreneter•1h ago•23 comments

Vitalik Buterin backs crypto ‘bunker mode’ amid rapid AI math advances

https://cointelegraph.com/news/justin-drake-urges-crypto-bunker-mode-as-ai-could-break-wallet-sec...
14•firstcomm•41m ago•1 comments

Trump administration is suspending Microsoft from a green card program

https://apnews.com/article/h1b-visa-program-vance-microsoft-e7b3a407f822702b269ee277d21343ea
672•alephnerd•4h ago•1130 comments

Why isn't the industry freaking out about DeepSeek 4.1 Flash?

https://www.dgt.is/blog/2026-10-07-deepseek-freek-out/
35•jonotime•19h ago•17 comments

Step 5 Preview, a 1M-context MoE from StepFun, shows up on OpenRouter

https://openrouter.ai/stepfun/step-5-preview
53•AnneWodell•3h ago•18 comments

Making a flexible "neon" t-shirt with LED filaments

http://scottbezek.blogspot.com/2026/10/making-flexible-neon-t-shirt-with-leds.html
12•scottbez1•3h ago•4 comments

Beauty in DVD Menus

https://vale.rocks/posts/dvd-menus
204•speckx•6h ago•128 comments

OpenAI annualised revenues $20B less than previously signalled

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/08/open-ai-revenue-nvidia-oracle-coreweave.html
223•mfiguiere•3h ago•133 comments

“Math 2.0” will need to value mathematical progress more holistically

https://mathstodon.xyz/@tao/117395269325940185
574•ent101•14h ago•596 comments

US man given prison sentence for bot-farming music streams

https://thequietus.com/news/us-man-given-prison-sentence-for-bot-farming-music-streams/
11•cdrnsf•18h ago•5 comments

Archaeologists Are Reconstructing the 'Invisible' Technologies of the Stone Age

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/archaeologists-are-reconstructing-the-invisible-tec...
73•Hooke•22h ago•36 comments

OLED burn-in test: 30-month update

https://www.techspot.com/article/3178-oled-burn-in-test/
39•baal80spam•9h ago•18 comments

DuckDB Ducklake

https://github.com/duckdb/ducklake
55•saikatsg•1d ago•3 comments

Man discovers his parents' coffee machine used 1TB of data in 10 days

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/man-discovers-his-parents-coffee-machine-used-1tb-of-data-i...
104•ck2•1d ago•51 comments

I hired an illustrator to draw my house. Now it's my Home Assistant dashboard

https://antonfrolov.substack.com/p/i-hired-an-illustrator-to-draw-my
94•soheilpro•1d ago•4 comments

I gave Opus 5.5 one prompt and six hours to visualize Invisible Cities

https://quesma.com/blog/invisible-cities-one-shot/
299•stared•7h ago•156 comments

Theranos.World

https://www.theranos.world/
7•kbyatnal•2h ago•0 comments

License update: AI derivation prohibited on all my art, lore, stories, comics

https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1178/license-update-ai-derivation-prohibited-on-all-my-art-lore...
3•frizlab•15m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I Put an AI Agent on a Nokia 110

https://github.com/anupray95/AI-Agent-on-a-NOKIA
15•anupray•5h ago•3 comments

New CRAM method offers giant boost to compressed memory reads

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/new-linux-tech-compresses-memory-in-ram-as-ram-for-45...
32•danny00•6h ago•14 comments

The Deeply Impersonal Personalized Recruiter Mail

https://blog.pentlander.com/the-deeply-impersonal-personalized-recruiter-mail/
27•speckx•2h ago•24 comments

Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?

36•mariocesar•1d ago•40 comments

Vanillin provides a sweet solution for chronic wound healing

https://news.flinders.edu.au/blog/2026/10/06/vanillin-provides-a-sweet-solution-for-chronic-wound...
12•geox•8h ago•1 comments

4-hour battery storage is cheaper to install than gas turbines all across globe

https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2026/10/4-hour-battery-storage-is-cheaper-to-install-than-g...
191•01-_-•3h ago•99 comments

What ArtCraft's Vibe-Coded Apps Say About Adobe

https://tedium.co/2026/10/08/artcraft-vibe-coding-creative-cloud-remake/
23•speckx•1h ago•29 comments

Orkut.com

https://orkut.com/
94•andreynering•5h ago•67 comments

The Slow Formation of Durable Software

https://newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-slow-formation-of-durable-software/
220•benbreen•2d ago•94 comments

Clojure in the age of language models

https://yogthos.net/posts/2026-10-07-clojure-llms.html
23•silcoon•14h ago•7 comments