What is a CSV file?

Point of Sale (POS) Glossary

CSV is an acronym for comma-separated values. CSV files are used to allow a variety of otherwise incompatible data files to be exchanged amongst various systems. CSV files are widely used to share data amongst spreadsheet and database programs which use proprietary formats. Most database and spreadsheet programs will convert a CSV file into a native format specific to the software, though some may continue to use CSV formatting.

CSV files are plain-text so they can be viewed in text editors, documents, emails, webpages, and more. They are truly universal since they use plain text. However, there are a few different formats, for instance, a scheme that uses quotation marks to handle commas in the data.

A CSV file is used by a point of sale system to import and export data, such as products, pricing, suppliers, and a variety of POS analytics.