Data Formats
data
formats
tabular
What is TSV?
Definition
TSV (Tab-Separated Values) is a text format for tabular data where columns are separated by tab characters instead of commas. TSV avoids the quoting complexities of CSV because tabs rarely appear in data fields.
Why It Matters
TSV is used in bioinformatics, spreadsheet exports, and data pipelines where data contains commas. It is simpler to parse than CSV because fields rarely need quoting. Many databases and analytics tools can import and export TSV.