Export Formats

What is Export Formats?

Different formats serve different purposes. CSV is universal but loses type information (everything's a string) and breaks on embedded commas or newlines. Excel preserves types and supports formulas but isn't easily machine-readable at scale. JSON handles nested structure well and is the lingua franca of APIs. Parquet is columnar and compresses brilliantly, making it the format of choice for warehouse loads and large data movements. The right format depends on the consumer: a non-technical user wants Excel, a developer wants JSON, a warehouse wants Parquet, an old-school import tool wants CSV. Most modern systems support all four and pick automatically based on context.

Why it matters

• Each format has a sweet spot — picking wrong is the difference between a 10-second load and a 10-minute battle.
• Affects downstream processing speed and storage cost dramatically.
• Schema strength varies — JSON and Parquet preserve types; CSV does not.

Use cases

• CSV export. For non-technical users and legacy import tools.
• Parquet export. For warehouse loads and large-data movements where compression matters.
• JSON export. For API-to-API integrations and developer-facing data deliveries.