About the Base64 to TSV Converter
Tab separated data is the quiet workhorse of clipboard transfers. Copy a block of cells out of a spreadsheet and what lands on the clipboard is TSV, which is why so many internal tools store and ship it. When that block has been through Base64 to survive a JSON field, this decoder gets it back.
The awkward part of TSV is that tabs are invisible. A column that looks aligned in one editor collapses in another, and a value that lost its tab is impossible to spot by eye. Two features address that. The status line counts the columns it found and says plainly when no tab characters were present at all, which is the fastest way to learn that an export used spaces. The arrow option draws each tab as a visible marker so you can see exactly where the boundaries sit while you read.
The conversion option rewrites the rows as comma separated values, quoting any field that contains a comma, a quote character or a line break so the result stays valid. That is handy when the destination is a tool that only accepts CSV, and it avoids a detour through a spreadsheet.
The arrow view is for reading only, so switch it off before copying data you intend to keep. Paste the result into TSV Viewer for a grid, or send it onward with TSV to JSON.
How to use
- Paste the Base64 payload into the left pane.
- Check the column count and the tab report in the status line.
- Switch Result to comma separated if your destination needs CSV.
- Copy the rows or download the file.
Common questions
- The status says a single column. What went wrong?
- No tab characters were found. The export probably used spaces or commas, so the data is not really TSV.
- Should I copy the arrow view?
- No. The arrows are only a reading aid and would become literal characters in whatever you paste them into.
- How are quotes handled when converting to CSV?
- Any field containing a comma, a double quote or a line break is wrapped in quotes, with inner quotes doubled.
- Can I paste this straight into a spreadsheet?
- Yes. Tab separated rows paste into cells directly in Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets.