CSV vs Excel (.xls) - What is the Difference?

Excel and CSV both help store data in tabular format. Besides this commonality, there is huge difference between Excel and CSV in their respective features and usages. Let's discuss what is the difference between CSV and Xlsx in detail in this CSV and Excel difference article

Difference between Excel Vs CSV

Here is the main difference between CSV and Excel:

ExcelCSV

It is a binary file that holds information about all the worksheets in a workbook

CSV stands for Comma Separated Values. It is a plain text format with a series of values separated by commas

An Excel not only stores data but can also do operations on the data

A CSV file is just a text file, it stores data but does not contain formatting, formulas, macros, etc. It is also known as flat files

Excel is a spreadsheet that saves files into its own proprietary format viz xls or xlsx

CSV is a format for saving tabular information into a delimited text file with extension .csv

Files saved in excel cannot be opened or edited by text editors

CSV files can be opened or edited by text editors like notepad

In data-warehouse, Excel is preferable for detailed standardized schema specification

In data-warehouse, CSV follows a fairly flat, simple schema

Any programming language library to parse Excel data is generally larger, slower and complicated

Any programming language to parse CSV data is trivial, generating it is extremely easy

With no clear distinction or separation between numeric values and text, Excel can mess up with your postal codes and credit card numbers with its auto formatting features

CSV is safe and can clearly differentiate between the numeric values and text. CSV does not manipulate data and stores it as-is.

In Excel, you have to have a start tag and end tag for each column in each row

In CSV, you write column headers only once

Excel consumes more memory while importing data

Importing CSV files can be much faster, and it also consumes less memory

Reading large files user is much easier in Excel for the end user. Also, you can have additional functions like selecting individual cells for import, convert dates and time automatically, reading formulas and their results, filters, sorting, etc.

Reading large files in CSV will not be as easier as Excel for the End User

Apart from text, data can also be stored in form of charts and graphs

Each record is stored as one line of a text file, and every newline signifies a new database row. CSV can not store charts or graphs

Excel file can be opened with Microsoft Excel doc only

CSV can be opened with any text editor in Windows like notepad, MS Excel, Microsoft Works 9, etc.

Excel can connect to external data sources to fetch data. You can use custom add-in in Excel to increase its functionality. Excel allows for Review of Data with detailed tracking and commenting feature.

All this functionality is not possible in CSV

As a developer, it's difficult to programmatically manipulate Excel files since the Excel is proprietary. This is especially true for languages other than .NET

As a developer it's easy to programmatically manipulate CSV since, after all, they are simple text files.

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KEY DIFFERENCE

CSV is a format for saving tabular information into a delimited text file with extension .csv whereas Excel is a spreadsheet that keeps files into its own proprietary format viz xls or xlsx.
CSV is a plain text format with a series of values separated by commas whereas Excel is a binary file that holds information about all the worksheets in a workbook.
CSV file can’t perform operations on data while Excel can perform operations on the data.
Comparing CSV vs Xlsx, CSV files are faster and also consumes less memory whereas Excel consumes more memory while importing data.
Comparing CSV vs Excel, CSV files can be opened with any text editor in windows while Excel files can't be opened with text editors.

Similarities between CSV and Excel Files

CSV is the acronym for "comma separated values". It is used to store tabular data where the column names and row values are separated using commas. The following image illustrates this

CSV file in Excel