Editing Comma-separated values (section)

== History ==
Comma-separated values is a data format that predates [[personal computer]]s by more than a decade: the [[IBM]] [[Fortran]] (level H extended) compiler under [[OS/360]] supported CSV in 1972.<ref>{{Citation |title=IBM FORTRAN Program Products for OS and the CMS Component of VM/370 General Information |edition=first |date=July 1972 |id=GC28-6884-0 |url=http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/370/fortran/GC28-6884-0_IBM_FORTRAN_Program_Products_for_OS_and_CMS_General_Information_Jul72.pdf |page=17 |access-date=February 5, 2016 |quote=For users familiar with the predecessor FORTRAN IV G and H processors, these are the major new language capabilities |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113723/http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/370/fortran/GC28-6884-0_IBM_FORTRAN_Program_Products_for_OS_and_CMS_General_Information_Jul72.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> List-directed ("free form") input/output was defined in [[FORTRAN 77]], approved in 1978. List-directed input used commas or spaces for delimiters, so unquoted character strings could not contain commas or spaces.<ref>{{Citation |title=Fortran 77 Language Reference |chapter=List-Directed I/O |chapter-url=http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19957-01/805-4939/6j4m0vnc5/index.html |publisher=Oracle |access-date=2012-10-26 |archive-date=2021-02-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226163504/https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19957-01/805-4939/6j4m0vnc5/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The term "comma-separated value" and the "CSV" abbreviation were in use by 1983.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/Infoworld-1983-09-12#page/n39/mode/2up/search/%22comma-separated+value%22 |title=SuperCalc², spreadsheet package for IBM, CP/M |access-date=December 11, 2017}}</ref> The manual for the [[Osborne Computer Corporation|Osborne]] Executive computer, which bundled the [[SuperCalc]] spreadsheet, documents the CSV quoting convention that allows strings to contain embedded commas, but the manual does not specify a convention for embedding quotation marks within quoted strings.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/bitsavers_osborneexeutiveRef1983_16634758/3F00186-00_ExecutiveRef_1983#page/n143/mode/2up/search/%22comma-separated+value%22 |title=Comma-Separated-Value Format File Structure |year=1983 |access-date=December 11, 2017}}</ref>

Comma-separated value lists are easier to type (for example into [[punched card]]s) than fixed-column-aligned data, and they were less prone to producing incorrect results if a value was punched one column off from its intended location.

Comma separated files are used for the interchange of database information between machines of two different architectures. The plain-text character of CSV files largely avoids incompatibilities such as [[endianness|byte-order]] and [[word size]]. The files are largely human-readable, so it is easier to deal with them in the absence of perfect documentation or communication.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/fdd000323.shtml |title=CSV, Comma Separated Values (RFC 4180) |access-date=June 4, 2014}}</ref>

The main standardization initiative—transforming "''[[de facto]]'' fuzzy definition" into a more precise and ''[[de jure]]'' one—was in 2005, with {{IETF RFC|4180}}, defining CSV as a [[MIME content type|MIME Content Type]].<ref>{{cite RFC |rfc=4180 |title=RFC 4180: Common Format and MIME Type for Comma-Separated Values (CSV) Files |access-date=December 22, 2020}}</ref> Later, in 2013, some of RFC 4180's deficiencies were tackled by a W3C recommendation.<ref>See [http://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-results-csv-tsv/ sparql11-results-csv-tsv], the first W3C recommendation scoped in CSV and filling some of RFC 4180's deficiencies.</ref>

In 2014 [[IETF]] published {{IETF RFC|7111|link=no}} describing the application of [[URI fragment]]s to CSV documents. RFC 7111 specifies how row, column, and cell ranges can be selected from a CSV document using position indexes.<ref>{{cite RFC |rfc=7111 |title=RFC 7111: URI Fragment Identifiers for the text/csv Media Type |access-date=December 22, 2020}}</ref>

In 2015 [[W3C]], in an attempt to enhance CSV with [[Semantic Web|formal semantics]], publicized the first ''drafts of recommendations'' for CSV metadata standards, which began as ''recommendations'' in December of the same year.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.w3.org/TR/tabular-data-model/ |title=Model for Tabular Data and Metadata on the Web – W3C Recommendation 17 December 2015 |access-date=March 23, 2016}}</ref>