How to Convert XML to CSV File? 5 Easy Methods
Want to convert XML to CSV quickly without any data loss? Then, here are the 5 authentic techniques to save XML in CSV file format. In this write-up, we will delve deep into the context of converting XML (Extensible Markup Language) files to CSV (Comma-Separated Values) format using XML converter, an Online tool, Notepad++, and a Python Script. Moreover, this .csv file is one of the important file types that you can use while working with structured data in spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
How to Convert XML to CSV using Notepad++?
Notepad++ is a well-known and open-source text editor that is a good alternative for this type of data conversion. Being light-weight in nature, it allows users to adjust XML data before converting to CSV, thus ensuring complete control over the output CSV structure. This versatile tool can save XML to CSV format, and here are the associated steps:
Step 1: Open your XML file, select all the text and copy (Ctrl + C), open Notepad++ on your PC, and paste (Ctrl + V), and remove the first two lines:
“SourceOptions
XPath/RenderXSL”
Step 2: From the top menu, select “Language”, which will drop down a list. Select ”XML” for the language of your file from this list.
Step 3: Go to “File” on the top toolbar, and then “Save As” to save your changes.
Step 4: Next, launch Excel on your PC and click “Open” on the left pane. Hit “Browse” → find your “XML file” → select it → “Open”. On the pop-up window, ensure that the As an XML table is checked, then hit the “OK” button. Hit “OK” again on the next pop-up, and your XML data will be shown in Excel.
How to Convert XML to CSV with Excel?
Despite the number of dedicated tools to transform an XML file into a CSV file, users go for Microsoft Excel because it is an easy-to-use and familiar tool. Also, an interesting fact, Excel has vast import capabilities that can deal with the complexities of XML and reformat it to CSV.
Once converted, one can perform Excel’s formulas and other data manipulation functions. If you want to know how to convert XML to CSV in Excel easily, then follow the steps below:
Step 1. Open a blank Excel sheet, and pick the “Data” tab from the upper toolbar. Move towards the left side to expand the “Get Data” drop-down menu and select “From File“. After that, select “From XML” from its extended menu, point it to your XML file, and continue with the “Import” button.
Step 2. Henceforth, you will get another pop-up to select an XML table. Here, choose a name from the left side, then preview it on the right side. Scroll down and click on the “Load” button, and the XML content will be shown in the blank spreadsheet.
Step 3. Lastly, use the “File” button from the top menu and select “Save As” from the following screen. Point to the right and click the “File Format” menu where Excel Workbook is already selected. From the menu, find the “CSV (Comma delimited)” and hit the “Save” button to receive the CSV file.
How to Convert XML to CSV in Python?
Python is as popular as ever in data science, which is why this task is made relatively easy from a programmer’s perspective. It has libraries like Pandas and xml.etree that are used specially to manipulate the data. Libraries like xml.etree takes care of XML parsing, and CSV formatting details. To understand how it works with xml.etree. Only for the ElementTree module, follow these steps —
Step 1. First, all you have to do is open up Python and paste the following code into it.
# Importing the required libraries
import xml.etree.ElementTree as Xet
import pandas as pd
cols = [“name”, “phone”, “email”, “date”, “country”]
rows = []
# Parsing the XML file
xmlparse = Xet.parse(‘sample.xml’)
root = xmlparse.getroot()
for i in root:
name = i.find(“name”).text if i.find(“name”) is not None else None
phone = i.find(“phone”).text if i.find(“phone”) is not None else None
email = i.find(“email”).text if i.find(“email”) is not None else None
date = i.find(“date”).text if i.find(“date”) is not None else None
country = i.find(“country”).text if i.find(“country”) is not None else None
rows.append({“name”: name,
“phone”: phone,
“email”: email,
“date”: date,
“country”: country})
df = pd.DataFrame(rows, columns=cols)
# Writing dataframe to csv
df.to_csv(‘output.csv’, index=False)
Step 2. After pasting the code, select the “Run” option from the top bar. In this way, you will save the CSV file in the same folder as this script.
XML To CSV Converter Online: How To Convert XML To CSV?
XML to CSV converter free software is a free online XML to CSV converter tool. Here, it transforms the files into CSV format in 3 possible ways. To start with, you can manually copy & paste XML data and save it as a CSV file. Secondly, you can upload your XML file to the World Wide Web, converting it into CSV without opening it. And finally, it allows you to submit the XML file URL. Go with the one that you think will suit you. The online XML converter allows you to convert XML to CSV.
Step 1. Upload, Enter URL, or Enter Data: Select your XML File
Step 2. Output Options: You can define the field separator and more.
Step 3. Get the XML to CSV download
Limitations of the Above Methods for XML to CSV Conversion
- Online converters lead to privacy risks and restrict the capacity of files to be converted.
- Notepad++ requires manual effort and possibly not good with complex XML structures.
- Excel can lose data, and doesn’t support sophisticated XML that has row/column restrictions.
- Custom scripts make error handling difficult when XML data is formatted incorrectly.
Convert XML to CSV using the Professional Tool
Dealing with data often involves the transformation of XML (Extensible Markup Language) sources to more accessible formats such as CSV (Comma-Separated Value). In this context, the SysTools XML Converter is a useful utility that will help you convert XML format files in no time, with a few simple clicks and a user-friendly interface.
Given below are the features of this software:
- Convert XML files to more than 10 formats such as CSV, Excel, TXT, PDF, HTML, and more.
- Deal with several XML files at once, which will save you time and effort.
- Preserve the original XML files to retain the associated format features of the XML files in your documents.
- Works on Windows and Mac OS, available on different OS.
- Preview XML content before converting to verify its accuracy and completeness.
How to Convert XML to CSV Using Automated Tool?
Here are the simple steps to convert XML files to CSV format:
Step 1. Install and open the Professional software on your computer.
Step 2. Import your XML files to the program by clicking on the “Add Files” or “Add Folder” button.
Step 3. Select “CSV” from the ‘Export options‘ list as the export format.
Step 4. Next, hit the “Change” button to select the output directory for the converted CSV files.
Step 5. Finally, hit the ‘Export‘ button to proceed with the conversion process.
Final Verdict
In this write-up, we have gone through many ways to convert XML to CSV files that suit your needs and expertise levels. From advanced simplicity to online tools, text editors, Excel, or even custom scripts. Now, you have many choices to make the data conversion task easier.