Download free sample CSV (Comma-Separated Values) files for data processing, import/export testing, and database development. Our collection includes basic datasets, large files with 100,000+ rows, mixed data types, quoted fields, international characters, pipe-delimited and tab-delimited variants, and deliberately malformed files for error handling testing. Every file is free — no sign-up required.
Why use our sample CSV files?
- Datasets from 100 rows to 100,000 rows — test at any scale
- Includes mixed data types, quoted fields, Unicode, and edge cases
- Comma, tab (TSV), and pipe-delimited variants for delimiter testing
- Deliberately malformed files for error handling and data cleaning tests
- 100% free to download — no account required
- Ideal for testing spreadsheet imports, database loading, ETL pipelines, and data analysis tools
All sample CSV files for download
| File Name | Size | Rows | Columns | Delimiter | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic data set | 5 KB | 100 | 5 | Comma | Download |
| Mixed data types | 32 KB | 500 | 8 | Comma | Download |
| Quoted fields | 24 KB | 200 | 6 | Comma | Download |
| International characters | 22 KB | 300 | 4 | Comma | Download |
| Tab-separated (TSV) | 12.7 KB | 200 | 6 | Tab | Download |
| Pipe-delimited | 11.6 KB | 200 | 6 | Pipe (|) | Download |
| No header row | 2.92 KB | 100 | 5 | Comma | Download |
| Empty fields | 10.1 KB | 150 | 7 | Comma | Download |
| Large data set | 10 MB | 100,000 | 10 | Comma | Download |
| Malformed CSV | 2 KB | ~100 | Varies | Comma | Download |
Sample CSV file details
1. Basic data set
Size: 5 KB
Rows: 100
Columns: 5
Delimiter: Comma
Encoding: UTF-8
Description: A simple CSV file with a header row and basic data types (strings, integers, decimals). Perfect for testing CSV parsing, spreadsheet import, and data display. This is the ideal starting file for smoke-testing any CSV processing workflow.
2. Mixed data types
Size: 32 KB
Rows: 500
Columns: 8
Delimiter: Comma
Encoding: UTF-8
Description: A CSV containing text strings, integers, floating-point numbers, dates (ISO 8601), boolean values, and empty fields. Use this to test data type detection, automatic type inference, date parsing, and how your application handles columns with mixed types.
3. Quoted fields
Size: 24 KB
Rows: 200
Columns: 6
Delimiter: Comma
Encoding: UTF-8
Description: A CSV with double-quoted fields containing commas, newlines, and escaped quotes within values. This is the most important edge-case file for testing proper RFC 4180-compliant CSV parsing — many naive parsers fail on embedded commas and newlines inside quoted fields.
4. International characters
Size: 22 KB
Rows: 300
Columns: 4
Delimiter: Comma
Encoding: UTF-8 (with BOM)
Description: A CSV containing names, addresses, and text in multiple languages — Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Cyrillic, and Latin-extended characters. Use this to test UTF-8 handling, character encoding detection, BOM processing, and internationalized data display.
Download International Characters
5. Tab-separated (TSV)
Size: 12.7 KB
Rows: 200
Columns: 6
Delimiter: Tab (\t)
Encoding: UTF-8
Description: A tab-separated values file — the same structure as CSV but using tabs instead of commas as the delimiter. Use this to test delimiter detection, custom delimiter configuration, and TSV-specific import workflows. Many database export tools and scientific data formats use TSV.
6. Pipe-delimited
Size: 11.6 KB
Rows: 200
Columns: 6
Delimiter: Pipe (|)
Encoding: UTF-8
Description: A pipe-delimited file — useful when data values contain commas (making standard CSV ambiguous). Use this to test custom delimiter handling in your CSV parser. Pipe-delimited formats are common in healthcare (HL7), financial data feeds, and legacy mainframe exports.
7. No header row
Size: 2.92 KB
Rows: 100
Columns: 5
Delimiter: Comma
Encoding: UTF-8
Description: A CSV file with no header row — data starts on line 1. Use this to test how your application handles CSV files without column names, including automatic column naming (Column1, Column2…), header row detection heuristics, and the pandas header=None parameter.
8. Empty fields
Size: 10.1 KB
Rows: 150
Columns: 7
Delimiter: Comma
Encoding: UTF-8
Description: A CSV with empty fields, null-like values (“”, NULL, N/A, NaN), and missing trailing columns. Use this to test null handling, missing value imputation, and how your application distinguishes between empty strings, explicit nulls, and absent values.
9. Large data set
Size: 10 MB
Rows: 100,000
Columns: 10
Delimiter: Comma
Encoding: UTF-8
Description: A large CSV with 100,000 rows for performance and stress testing. Use this to benchmark CSV parsing speed, test memory management with large datasets, verify streaming/chunked reading, and test database bulk import operations (COPY, LOAD DATA INFILE).
10. Malformed CSV
Size: 2 KB
Rows: ~100
Columns: Varies
Delimiter: Comma
Encoding: UTF-8
Description: A deliberately malformed CSV with inconsistent column counts, unclosed quotes, mixed line endings (CRLF/LF/CR), and encoding irregularities. Use this to test error handling, data cleaning pipelines, recovery from parse errors, and how your application reports malformed input.
How to use these sample CSV files
- Click the “Download” button next to the file you need.
- Save the CSV file to your device.
- Open in Excel, Google Sheets, a text editor, or your development environment.
- Use for testing data imports, ETL pipelines, database loading, or data analysis workflows.
Note: These sample CSV files are free to download and use for testing, development, and educational purposes. For commercial use, please provide proper attribution.
Download sample data in other formats
- Sample JSON files — Structured data for API testing and configuration
- Sample XML files — Markup data for parsing, validation, and transformation
- Sample SQL files — Database files for SQL testing
- Sample XLSX files — Excel spreadsheets with data and formulas
FAQs about sample CSV files
What software can open CSV files?
CSV files can be opened with Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc, Apple Numbers, any text editor (Notepad, VS Code, Sublime Text), and virtually every programming language (Python’s csv module, pandas, R’s read.csv, Node.js csv-parse, etc.). CSV is the most universally supported data exchange format.
What is the difference between CSV and TSV?
CSV uses commas as the field delimiter, while TSV uses tabs. TSV avoids the need for quoting when data values contain commas, making it simpler to parse in some scenarios. Many database export tools and scientific data formats default to TSV. Our collection includes both formats so you can test delimiter handling in your application.
What is RFC 4180?
RFC 4180 is the formal specification for CSV format. It defines rules for field quoting (double quotes around fields containing commas, newlines, or quotes), quote escaping (doubling the quote character), header rows, and line endings (CRLF). Our quoted fields sample file is specifically designed to test RFC 4180 compliance in CSV parsers.
How do I handle CSV files with different encodings?
Most modern CSV files use UTF-8 encoding, which is what all our sample files use. Some legacy systems produce CSV files in Windows-1252, Latin-1, or Shift-JIS encoding. When opening CSV files, specify the encoding explicitly (e.g., pd.read_csv('file.csv', encoding='utf-8') in Python) rather than relying on auto-detection. Our international characters file includes a UTF-8 BOM (byte order mark) to test BOM handling.
Can I use these CSV files for database import testing?
Yes — that’s one of the primary use cases. The large dataset (100,000 rows) is ideal for testing bulk import operations like PostgreSQL’s COPY, MySQL’s LOAD DATA INFILE, or SQLite’s .import command. The mixed data types file tests type mapping between CSV text values and database column types. The malformed file tests how your import process handles bad data.
Are these CSV files safe to download?
Yes, all sample CSV files on this page are clean, verified, and safe. They are plain text files containing only sample data — no macros, scripts, or executable code.