CSV to XML Converter
Convert CSV data to XML format instantly. Paste or upload your CSV file.
Upload a CSV or TXT file (max 5MB)
Conversion Options
How to Use:
- Paste your CSV data in the left textarea or upload a CSV file
- Configure conversion options (root name, row name, delimiter, etc.)
- Click "Convert to XML" to transform your CSV
- Copy the XML output or download it as a file
- Use "Format XML" or "Minify XML" to adjust the output
How CSV Rows Become XML Elements Here
Each CSV row becomes a <row>-style element (rename it to whatever you need) containing one child element per column, named after that column's header. Cell values pass through a proper XML entity escaper — &, <, >, ", and ' are all converted to their named entities, so a cell containing Tom & Jerry or a stray <tag>-looking string won't break the resulting document. There's no CDATA option, though — if a column genuinely contains markup you want preserved as markup rather than escaped text, this tool will always escape it.
Element names built from your headers only allow letters, digits, underscore, hyphen, and period — anything else in a header (spaces, #, %, parentheses) becomes an underscore. Unlike a JSON key, an XML element name can't start with a digit or a period, so headers such as 2024 Sales have their leading digits stripped outright, becoming _Sales — note this tool removes the leading number rather than prefixing an underscore in front of it, so 2024 is gone from the tag name entirely, not just relocated.
What "Format" and "Minify" Do to Existing XML
"Format XML" is a lightweight re-indenter: it walks the markup tag by tag, increasing indent on opening tags and decreasing it on closing tags, without building a DOM or validating well-formedness. It's fast and fine for output this tool itself generated, but it isn't a substitute for a real XML validator — attributes containing a literal > character or unusual nesting can confuse a simple tag-scanner like this. "Minify XML" is simpler still: it collapses whitespace between tags and strips newlines/tabs, which is safe for this tool's own output but, like the formatter, doesn't parse the document — a text node that intentionally contains meaningful whitespace could be affected.
When You'd Reach for CSV-to-XML Specifically
Feeding a legacy import that only accepts XML
Older ERPs, some SOAP-based integrations, and certain government/EDI submission portals still require XML rather than JSON or CSV. Exporting a report to CSV from a spreadsheet and running it through this converter is often faster than writing a one-off script.
Producing a quick RSS/Atom-adjacent feed by hand
For a small, hand-maintained data feed, converting a spreadsheet of entries to XML with custom root/row element names gets you a structurally valid starting document you can then wrap with feed-specific tags.
Sample data for testing an XML parser
If you're writing code that consumes XML and need quick, varied test fixtures, sketching rows in a CSV grid and converting is often faster than typing nested XML tags by hand.
Bridging a spreadsheet export to a Java/.NET config loader
Some configuration systems in older enterprise stacks read settings from XML files. Maintaining the source list in a spreadsheet and re-exporting to XML on each change avoids hand-editing tags.
Frequently Asked Questions
My header started with a number — what happened to it in the XML tag?
Leading digits are stripped from element names because XML doesn't allow a tag to start with a number. 2024_Revenue becomes _Revenue — the digits are removed, not moved elsewhere. Rename the column first if you need the year preserved in the tag name.
Does this support XML attributes instead of nested elements?
No — every column always becomes a child element of the row element (<row><Name>...</Name></row>), there's no option to output columns as attributes on the row tag instead.
Will HTML or markup inside a CSV cell come through as real tags?
No, it will be escaped as text. A cell containing <b>bold</b> renders in the XML as the literal escaped string, not as a nested XML element, since there's no CDATA wrapping option.
Is the "Format XML" button a validator?
No — it's a simple tag-based re-indenter, not a DOM parser or schema validator. It will reformat well-formed XML but won't catch or report structural errors the way a dedicated XML validator would.
Can I exclude the <?xml version="1.0"?> declaration?
Yes, uncheck "Include XML Declaration" before converting. This is useful when the XML fragment will be embedded inside another document rather than saved as a standalone file.