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?

Workers Cache

https://blog.cloudflare.com/workers-cache/
58•ilreb•51m ago•10 comments

Regression to the Mean: on LLMs and the quiet death of the new

https://rruxandra.github.io/regression-to-the-mean.html
27•rruxandra_l•32m ago•17 comments

Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network

https://www.map.signalbox.io
241•scrlk•4h ago•97 comments

Anthropic's Method to Losing Goodwill in a Few Easy Steps

https://raheeljunaid.com/blog/anthropics-method-to-losing-goodwill-in-a-few-easy-steps/
43•raheelrjunaid•1h ago•10 comments

Road to Elm 1.0

https://elm-lang.org/news/faster-builds
113•wolfadex•2h ago•52 comments

Bryan Johnson: I have an autoimmune disease. My stomach is eating itself

https://twitter.com/bryan_johnson/status/2072069730517860385
28•danso•47m ago•12 comments

Why low-latency Java still requires discipline?

https://chronicle.software/insights/blogs/why-low-latency-java-still-requires-discipline
9•theanonymousone•50m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Scan your AI agents for dangerous capabilities

https://github.com/makerchecker/MakerChecker
11•smashini•36m ago•5 comments

Study: ultra-black coating could reduce satellite light pollution

https://www.surrey.ac.uk/news/astrophysicists-show-how-worlds-darkest-coating-could-protect-night...
21•giuliomagnifico•2h ago•33 comments

Aluminum Foil

https://dernocua.github.io/notes/aluminum-foil.html
5•firephox•24m ago•0 comments

The AI Marketing Backlash: Why 'AI-First' Brands Are Starting to Fall Flat

https://www.breef.com/breefingroom/articles/the-ai-marketing-backlash-why-ai-first-brands-are-sta...
35•hasudon7171•1h ago•19 comments

Fable 5 On Vending-Bench: Misbehaving, With Plausible Deniability

https://andonlabs.com/blog/fable5-vending-bench
15•optimalsolver•1h ago•0 comments

GPT-5.6 Sol Ultra will be in Codex

https://twitter.com/thsottiaux/status/2073933490513752151
353•mfiguiere•12h ago•301 comments

Introduction to Genomics for Engineers

https://learngenomics.dev/docs/biological-foundations/cells-genomes-dna-chromosomes/
102•yreg•4d ago•12 comments

Show HN: Pet Reminder – A macOS reminder app with a desktop pet

https://reminder.w3cub.com/
6•terryXyz•52m ago•1 comments

Real time map of France's rail network

https://carto.tchoo.net/
3•appreciatorBus•32m ago•0 comments

The Fear of Dying Before You Become Yourself

https://www.dailicle.com/read/the-fear-of-dying-before-you-become-yourself
4•dotcoma•37m ago•1 comments

Has_not_been_viewed_much

https://iamwillwang.com/notes/has-not-been-viewed-much/
378•wxw•14h ago•101 comments

Building relationships with customers through support didn't turn out as hoped

https://www.uncommonapps.nyc/p/castro-podcasts-things-i-got-wrong-support
226•dabluck•11h ago•144 comments

C programmers commit fresh crimes against readability

https://www.theregister.com/offbeat/2026/07/05/c-programmers-commit-fresh-crimes-against-readabil...
65•Bender•2h ago•5 comments

When 2+2=5

https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/06/ai-browsers-can-be-lulled-into-a-dream-world-where-guard...
8•noashavit•3d ago•0 comments

The Complete Homemade Juggling Beanbag Guide

https://www.joshuaclifton.com/juggle/
35•mrauha•4d ago•5 comments

X402, a static blog monetization excercise

https://shtein.me/posts/x402-poc/
14•morty28•3h ago•9 comments

OpenPrinter

https://www.opentools.studio/
1004•bouh•16h ago•242 comments

Does code cleanliness affect coding agents? A controlled minimal-pair study

https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.20049
164•softwaredoug•14h ago•81 comments

Show HN: Paint the Earth on a live, interactive globe (collaborative art.)

https://earth.tattoo
11•earth-tattoo•3h ago•8 comments

My quest to see all of Tetris

https://antithesis.com/blog/2026/tetris-quest/
38•wwilson•3d ago•9 comments

Nintendo announces new product revisions in Europe with replaceable batteries

https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Support/Nintendo-Switch-2/Information-about-upcoming-battery-relat...
13•akyuu•35m ago•6 comments

How the U.S. Engineered Its Sovereignty

https://spectrum.ieee.org/us-engineered-sovereignty
44•rbanffy•3h ago•37 comments

Zuckerberg says AI agent development going slower than expected

https://www.reuters.com/business/zuckerberg-says-ai-agent-development-going-slower-than-expected-...
296•cwwc•3d ago•517 comments