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Store Scraped Data in CSV Format

Store Scraped Data in CSV Format

Learn when to use the CSV format and how to export data scraped with Puppeteer to a CSV file.

CSV overview

CSV (comma-separated values) is a simple and widely used file format for storing and exchanging tabular data. It provides a straightforward way to represent structured data, such as tables, where each line in the file corresponds to a row, and the values within each row are separated by commas.

CSV files are plain text files that can be easily generated and parsed by various programming languages and tools. Their simplicity makes them lightweight and efficient, making them an excellent choice for exporting scraped data.

When exporting scraped data in CSV format, each row typically represents a record, and each column represents a specific attribute or field of the data. The first row of the CSV file often contains column headers describing the data in each column.

ID,Name,Email,Phone
1,John Doe,johndoe@example.com,555-1234
2,Jane Smith,janesmith@example.com,555-5678
3,Robert Johnson,robertjohnson@example.com,555-1357
4,Lisa Davis,lisadavis@example.com,555-1739 
Sample CSV raw file

We can visualize a CSV file in a spreadsheet application more conveniently, like below:

Visualization of a CSV File in a Spreadsheet Software (Excel)

ID

Name

Email

Phone

1

John Doe

johndoe@example.com

555-1234

2

Jane Smith

janesmith@example.com

555-5678

3

Robert Johnson

robertjohnson@example.com

555-9012

4

Lisa Davis

lisadavis@example.com

555-3456

When to use CSV

Here are some ...