Comma-separated values (CSV) is a text data format that uses commas to separate delimiter-separated values, and newlines to separate records. CSV data stores tabular data (numbers and text) in plain text, where each line typically represents one data record. Each record consists of the same number of fields, and these are separated by commas. If the field delimiter itself may appear within a field, fields can be surrounded with quotation marks.

CSV is widespread in data applications and is widely supported by a variety of software, including common spreadsheet applications such as Microsoft Excel. Benefits cited in favor of CSV include human readability and the simplicity of the format.

The CSV file format was formalized in the 2005 technical standard RFC 4180, which defines the MIME type "text/csv" for the handling of text-based fields.