Data Converters Documentation

JSON to CSV Flattening Mechanics & Dot-Notation Mapping

Complete guide on converting nested JSON object arrays to RFC 4180 CSV tables with dot-notation column flattening and delimiter controls.

Relational spreadsheets and analytics platforms (Excel, Google Sheets, Pandas) require tabular 2D structures. JSON to CSV conversion flattens multi-level objects into rectangular rows and columns.

1. Recursive Key Flattening (Dot-Notation)

Nested object properties are transformed into delimited column headers:

// Input JSON
[
  {
    "id": 101,
    "user": { "name": "Alice", "address": { "city": "London" } }
  }
]
id,user.name,user.address.city
101,Alice,London

2. Array Serialization Modes

  • JSON String Mode: Encodes inner arrays as stringified JSON (e.g. "["admin", "billing"]").
  • Joined String Mode: Joins primitive array values with semicolons or pipes (e.g. "admin;billing").

3. RFC 4180 Escaping Compliance

Fields containing commas, line breaks, or double quotes must be wrapped in double quotes, with internal quotes escaped as "".

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