Convert CSV To HTML & Convert CSV to XML With/Without MS Excel

(Batch Conversion of CSV Files to/from HTML, XML, XLS, XLSX, Fixed Width Text etc.)

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Note: A CSV file can be any character delimited file, see CSV File Definition for details.

Do you need software to convert CSV to HTML or XML? If so, we got just the tool you need. 'Convert XLS' can convert CSV to HTML (as well as XML, XLS, XLSX, or a fixed width text file) exceptionally fast.

Note: We can easily handle HUGE CSV file sizes (gigabytes). Unicode and other text encodings (ASCII, ANSI, UTF8 etc.) are supported.

All of our conversion tools allow you to automate the process by using the built in scheduler, command line (batch files, command prompt etc.), or for you programmers a COM/ActiveX interface.

For details on how to specifically convert from CSV to html please continue reading below. See the bottom of this page for some examples showing how to convert CSV to HTML (or XML) from the command line.

Convert CSV to HTML or Convert CSV to XML with the 'Convert XLS' User Interface

First we show what conversions are possible with CSV files, then we discuss specific directions for how to use the programs user interface.

What Conversions Are Possible With CSV Files

Below we show you what you can convert CSV files to/from when using ‘Convert XLS’, click on the link for more details:

Convert from CSV to these file types

Convert To CSV file from these file types

Convert CSV to HTML/XML
Convert CSV to Fixed Width Text File
Convert CSV to XLS File
Convert CSV to XLSX File
Convert CSV to PDF
** Convert from CSV To Any file MS Excel can Save As

Convert Text To CSV
Convert XLS to CSV
Convert XLSX to CSV
** Convert Any file MS Excel can open to CSV

** Requires the use of the ‘MS Excel’ conversion method. Unicode, UTF8 and ASCII/ANSI supported.

Convert CSV To HTML/XML Files From the User Interface

See an online video.

Directions for converting to/from a CSV file are given below:

Converting From a CSV file to html/xml

1. Select the ‘Convert Files’ Action To Do

2. Select the input file path. For a whole folder be certain to use the *.ext format. For example if you want to convert the folder of csv files located in “C:\input folder\” then use “C:\input folder\*.ext” where ext is the extension used for the files. Typically, *.ext will be *.csv but not always.

Choose either ‘Convert XLS’ or ‘MS Excel’ conversion method. The ‘Convert XLS’ conversion method can be 10-20 times faster than the ‘MS Excel’ conversion method. If you are using something other than a comma for the delimitation character pick the ‘Convert XLS’ conversion method.

If you are using the ‘Convert XLS’ conversion method, specify the Original File Format. In this case it may be one of three choices, “[6] Character Separated (*.CSV)”, “[23] Character Separated Unicode (*.csv)” or “[25] Character Separated UTF-8 (*.csv)”.

Click on the OPTIONS button and then the “CSV, TSV…” tab to choose what character you are using to distinguish each piece of data within each record. By default the comma is used. There are also XML specific options in this area.

3. Now specify the Target (output) file path. If you are doing a whole folder, then specify the whole folder using the “*.ext” format (for example "c:\output\*.htm"). Finally, specify the ‘Convert To File Format” target (output) file type. In this case it may be one of two choices, “[44] Web Page (*.HTM, *.HTML)” or “[46] XML (*.XML)”. Note that you will have more choices available if you choose the ‘MS Excel’ conversion method.

4. Click the CONVERT button on the tool bar to start converting.

Converting To a CSV file from a different file type

1. Select the ‘Convert Files’ Action To Do

If you are using the ‘Convert XLS’ conversion method, specify the Original (input) File Format.

Click on the Options button and then the “CSV, TSV…” tab to choose what character you want to distinguish each piece of data within each record of the csv file. By default the comma is used. If you are converting from a ‘Fixed Width Text File’ (‘Convert XLS’ conversion method is required for this), then click on the “Converting to/from a Fixed Width Text File” tab and specify each column width.

3. Now specify the Target (output) file path. If you are doing a whole folder, then specify the whole folder using the “*.ext” format (for example "C:\Output\*.csv"). Finally, specify the ‘Convert To File Format” target (output) file type. In this case it may be one of two choices, “[6] Character Separated (*.CSV)” or “[23] Character Separated Unicode (*.csv)

4. Click the CONVERT button on the tool bar to start converting.

Command Line Examples: Conversion of CSV to HTM

NOTE: 'Convert XLS' can be used simply with the graphical user interface (GUI). If you've never heard of 'Command Line' before, we would recommend not reading this section and instead download and try the software.

This is just a sample from the documentation. If you have trouble running these examples please see Helpful Hints For Creating a Command Line within the documentation.

The first example shows how to convert the most popular form of a CSV file, a comma delimited file, to an HTML file. The second example shows how to convert any character delimited (tab, bar, semicolon etc.).

To convert to XML simply change the /C44 to /C46 in the examples below.

The examples are shown using the very fast ‘Convert XLS’ conversion method. To use the ‘MS Excel’ conversion method replace /M2 with /M1. Each switch shown in blue is described in detail below the examples.

It is highly recommended you review each switches description before implementing the example, thereby giving you the full power of ‘Convert XLS’.

Example 1 (Comma Delimited CSV File to HTML)

To convert a single comma delimited CSV file, “C:\in\input.CSV” to a HTML file located in the “C:\Out\” folder, the following syntax would be used:

ConvertXLS.EXE /S"C:\in\input.CSV" /T "C:\Out\output.HTM" /C44 /F6 /M2 /V

To convert a whole folder (and subfolders) of comma delimited CSV files, C:\CSVFiles\*.CSV to HTML files located in the C:\Out\ folder, the following syntax would be used:

ConvertXLS.EXE /S"C:\in\*.CSV" /T "C:\Out\*.HTM" /C44 /F6 /M2 /R /V

The /G switch can be used to tell ‘Convert XLS’ to simply place each output file in the same folder as each input file. Therefore the command line above is equivalent to the command line below:

ConvertXLS.EXE /S"C:\in\*.CSV" /G /C44 /F6 /M2 /R /V

You may simply want to convert a whole folder and its subfolders and place the output into a separate folder/drive. In which case use this syntax:

ConvertXLS.EXE /S"C:\in\*.CSV" /T "C:\Out\*.HTM" /C44 /F6 /M2 /R /V

Example 2 (Any Character Delimited CSV File to HTML)

The next example can be adapted to convert any character delimited text (CSV) file. Say we have a bar “|” delimited text file that looks like this:

a1|b1|c1

a2|b2|c2

a3|b3|c3

The bar character has an ASCII equivalent of 124 therefore they syntax would be like this:

ConvertXLS.EXE /S"C:\in\bar_delimited.txt" /T "C:\Out\Final.HTM" /C44 /F6 /M2 /N"^^124" /V

If we had a tab delimited file we would simply change the 124 in the above examples with ASCII equivalent of the tab character, 9. If you are not sure what the numeric equivalent of your separation character is, go to the Options button and click on the “CSV,TSV…” tab within the user interface. Of course the examples above can be adapted to do whole folders and subfolders similar to what we did in Example 1.

The /S and /T switches above specify Source (input) and Target (output) path respectively and are both required when converting a single file. It is always a good idea to use double quotes around the path especially if there are space characters within the path.
The /C44 switch specifies that the target (output) file to be a HTML file whereas the /F6 switch specifies the original (input file) is a CSV file. See Excel Conversion File Type Constants (documentation) for all possible values for /C and /F. Use /C46 to convert to XML.
The /M2 switch tells it to use the ‘Convert XLS’ conversion method which is exceptionally fast. Note the /M1 switch could have been used to specify the ‘MS Excel’ conversion method which is a bit slower and requires MS Excel.
The /R switch tells it to search the original folder and its subfolders for files to convert.
/G switch can be used to tell ‘Convert XLS’ to simply place each output file in the same folder as each input file.
/N"{Sheet^Range^DelimChar^FixedWidth^X}" Is used when converting to/from an Excel, CSV or fixed width text file. It specifies which Sheets to convert, what Range to convert and what delimitation/separation character to use, and the method to import export to a fixed width text file. The syntax for this parameter is critical, the items are separated by a carrot character "^". In this example we are only using it to specify the ASCII Chart of the delimitation character of the CSV file.
The /V (for Verbose) switch is used to give instant feedback by having the program report the status of the conversion with a message box. You can remove this once you have perfected your command line specification. You can also (or instead of /V) create a Log file that will contain the results of the conversion by using the /L switch.

Note: It is highly encouraged that you use the Verbose (/V) switch initially to see what the status of your conversion is and to help you perfect your command line. When in verbose mode the program will tell you what went wrong or right with your command line using message boxes.