In the previous lesson, introduced plain text files, which can be opened in any text editor and are human-readable (as opposed to a machine-readable file such as a Microsoft Word document, which is only readable with specific software). In this lesson, we’ll introduce three plain text file formats that are designed for storing data:

• eXtensible Markup Language (XML)
• JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)
• Comma-Separated Values (CSV)

Motivation

You may want data in one format for some purpose and another format for a different purpose. However, as a consumer of data that some other individual or entity has prepared for a purpose of their own, you will often have to work with data from the state in which it is available.

Text Editors and Spreadsheets

Plain text data files are readable by simple text editors, such as TextEdit on Mac and Notepad on Windows. However, these programs may not be the most convenient choice for working with data in XML, JSON and CSV formats. More advanced text editors provide lots of convenient functionality, most notably in formatting the text for readability using colors and spacing. Spreadsheet software, such as Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, is useful for working with CSV files.

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