What is Firebase?

JSON shaped for a Realtime Database import: an object keyed by record id rather than an array.

Who uses it

Firebase projects.

Writing Firebase

Keys come from the first column. Firebase does not store arrays natively, so a keyed object is the correct shape for an import.

What it can hold

Firebase is a data interchange format. Documents are keyed rather than ordered, so row order is not something the store promises to keep. A machine can read the table back out of it without guessing, which is what makes it safe to convert into and out of.

It keeps

Types. A number stays a number and a boolean stays a boolean, so whatever reads the file next does not have to guess from how a value looks.
Nested values. A cell can hold a list or an object rather than only a single value.
A line break inside a cell, which survives rather than ending the row.

It cannot express

Any formatting. Bold, colour, column widths and merged cells have nowhere to go.
A partial read. The document has to be complete to mean anything, so a truncated file yields nothing and a large one has to be held in memory whole.
A header row. Column names are repeated on every record instead, which is why a file in this format is larger than the table it holds.

What it looks like

Example Firebase

{
  "staff": {
    "104": {
      "id": "104",
      "name": "Wei Chen",
      "role": "Manager",
      "started": "2023-06-30",
      "hours": "40"
    },
    "007": {
      "id": "007",
      "name": "Halima Yusuf",
      "role": "Analyst, data",
      "started": "2024-03-15",
      "hours": "38.5"
    },
    "012": {
      "id": "012",
      "name": "Jonah \"Jo\" Pryce",
      "role": "Engineer",
      "started": "2025-11-02",
      "hours": ""
    }
  }
}

Questions

How do I open Firebase files?

Firebase is written by Tablizer rather than read by it. Open the file in whichever tool the format belongs to.

Is Firebase a good format for sharing data?

It depends who is receiving it. Firebase projects. If the recipient is outside that group, a plain CSV travels further than anything else.