A comma-separated values – CSV (MS-DOS) file is used for the digital storage of data structured in a table of lists form, where each associated item (member) in a group is in association with others also separated by the commas of its set. Each line in the CSV file corresponds to a row in the table. Within a line, fields are separated by commas, each field belonging to one table column. Since it is a common and simple file format, CSV files are often used for moving tabular data between two different computer programs, for example between a database program and a spread sheet program.

If you have an excel spread sheet with the following columns

First Name Last Name Mobile Number
James Brown 0212345678
Sally Taylor 0278765432

When this excel file is saved as a CSV file, if you view it (using Notepad or Text Edit) then the data will look something link this

“James”,”Brown”,”0212345678″
“Sally”,”Taylor”,”0278765432 “