Convert TSV to PHP Array Online

Paste a TSV table below, edit it if you need to, and get PHP Array 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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Nothing here is uploaded. The parsing happens on this page.

Edit

Paste or upload something above and it will appear here.

ToDataMarkupDocumentsCodeSchemasImages

Header rowDetect numbers

The output will appear here once there is a table to convert.

What TSV is

TSV is CSV with tabs instead of commas. Because tabs almost never appear inside a value, quoting is rarely needed and the files are easier to read by eye.

Bioinformatics, log processing, and anyone who has copied a block of cells out of a spreadsheet: the clipboard format is TSV.

What PHP Array is

A PHP array literal: an outer array of rows, each an associative array keyed by column name.

PHP applications that need a lookup table in code rather than in a database.

What changes when you convert TSV to PHP Array

The tab is unambiguous, so there is no delimiter to guess. This is the most reliable of the delimited formats to read.

Values are single-quoted with backslashes and quotes escaped, so the output can be pasted into a file as is.

What carries over from TSV to PHP Array

TSV records 2 things about a table that PHP has no way to hold.

PHP wants a type for each column, and TSV does not record one, so each column is typed from what its values look like. A column of digits that should stay text - a zip code, a phone number, a leading-zero id - is the usual thing to check afterwards.

PHP has no header row. The column names are repeated as keys on every record instead, which is why the result is bigger on disk than the table it came from.

TSV can be read one record at a time. PHP 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.

The identifier 007 comes out of the PHP Array 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 PHP Array file goes wrong.

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

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.

TSV 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

PHP Array out

$staff = [
  ['id' => '007', 'name' => 'Halima Yusuf', 'role' => 'Analyst, data', 'started' => '2024-03-15', 'hours' => '38.5'],
  ['id' => '012', 'name' => 'Jonah "Jo" Pryce', 'role' => 'Engineer', 'started' => '2025-11-02', 'hours' => ''],
  ['id' => '104', 'name' => 'Wei Chen', 'role' => 'Manager', 'started' => '2023-06-30', 'hours' => '40'],
];

Questions

How do I convert TSV to PHP Array?

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

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.