Convert CSV to BBCode Online

Paste a CSV table below, edit it if you need to, and get BBCode back. The conversion runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded, there is no size limit and there is no signup.

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What CSV is

CSV is a text file where each line is a row and commas separate the fields. There is no type system, no formatting and no second sheet. Every value is text until something downstream decides otherwise.

Almost every database, analytics tool and spreadsheet can read and write it, which is why exports default to it.

What BBCode is

BBCode uses square-bracket tags. Table support is not universal, but table, tr, th and td are widely implemented.

phpBB, vBulletin and forum software descended from them.

What changes when you convert CSV to BBCode

Reading CSV means deciding three things the file does not state: which character separates fields, how quotes work, and what encoding the bytes are in. Tablizer sniffs the delimiter from the first few lines, handles quoted fields containing commas and newlines, and reads the file as UTF-8.

Check that your forum has table tags enabled. Many boards ship with them switched off.

What carries over from CSV to BBCode

CSV records 3 things about a table that BBCode has no way to hold.

A line break inside a cell ends the row in BBCode, so line breaks are replaced rather than carried through.

CSV can be read one record at a time. BBCode has to be complete before it means anything, so the whole table is held in memory while it is written and a file that gets cut off part way through is not partly usable - it is unusable.

BBCode is the end of the line for this data. Reading the table back out of it is a separate and much harder problem than writing it, so keep the CSV if you will need the values again.

The identifier 007 comes out of the BBCode as 007. Reading it as a number would have made it 7, and an id that changes value is worse than one that stays text.

The role "Analyst, data" survives with its comma, in one cell rather than split across two. That is the first thing to check in any converted table, and the usual place a BBCode file goes wrong.

The quotes around Jonah "Jo" Pryce are left as a plain quote character in the BBCode.

A worked example

Three rows of staff data, with an identifier that has a leading zero, a value containing a comma, a value containing quotes and one blank cell. Those are the four places formats disagree, so they are the four places to look.

CSV in
id,name,role,started,hours
007,Halima Yusuf,"Analyst, data",2024-03-15,38.5
012,"Jonah ""Jo"" Pryce",Engineer,2025-11-02,
104,Wei Chen,Manager,2023-06-30,40
BBCode out
[table]
  [tr][th]id[/th][th]name[/th][th]role[/th][th]started[/th][th]hours[/th][/tr]
  [tr][td]007[/td][td]Halima Yusuf[/td][td]Analyst, data[/td][td]2024-03-15[/td][td]38.5[/td][/tr]
  [tr][td]012[/td][td]Jonah "Jo" Pryce[/td][td]Engineer[/td][td]2025-11-02[/td][td][/td][/tr]
  [tr][td]104[/td][td]Wei Chen[/td][td]Manager[/td][td]2023-06-30[/td][td]40[/td][/tr]
[/table]

Questions

How do I convert CSV to BBCode?

Paste your CSV into the box above or drop the file onto it. Check the table in the grid, then copy or download the BBCode from the output panel. It takes one step and the data never leaves your browser.

Why does my CSV open with all the data in one column?

The file uses a delimiter your spreadsheet did not expect. Exports from European locales often use semicolons because the comma is the decimal separator there. Change the delimiter in the export options and the columns split correctly.

Can I convert the BBCode back to CSV afterwards?

Not mechanically. BBCode keeps how the table looks, not what it held, so going back means reading the values off the page again. Keep the CSV if you will need it.

One of my cells has a line break in it - what happens?

A line break would end the row in BBCode, so it is replaced instead of carried through. The rest of the cell stays where it belongs.

Is there a limit on file size?

No. The work happens on your own machine, so the limit is your machine's memory rather than an upload cap. A file with tens of thousands of rows converts in a second or two.

Is my data uploaded anywhere?

No. The parsing and generating are done by JavaScript running on this page. You can watch the network tab while you convert and see that nothing is sent.

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