File Formats & Saving¶
Supported formats¶
| Format | Extension | Separator |
|---|---|---|
| CSV | .csv |
Comma (and others — see below) |
| TSV | .tsv |
Tab |
Even though it's called "Smart CSV Editor," it happily reads files separated by commas, semicolons, tabs, pipes, or spaces, and auto-detects which one a file uses. You can override the detection in Re-open With Settings.
Text encodings¶
Smart CSV Editor auto-detects the text encoding and can be pointed at a specific one if a file has unusual characters. Supported encodings include:
UTF-8 · UTF-16 (BE/LE) · UTF-32 (BE/LE) · ISO Latin 1 · ISO Latin 2 · Windows 1250 / 1251 / 1252 / 1253 / 1254 · Shift JIS · EUC-JP.
If a file opens with garbled characters, use Re-open With Settings → Text Encoding to pick the right one.
Saving (autosave)¶
Smart CSV Editor autosaves as you edit — changes are written back to the file automatically, so there's no Save button. Undo/redo history lets you step back through your edits within a session.
To rename, duplicate, move, or delete a file, use the document browser (the file list you see when the app opens, or the Files app): long-press the file and choose the action.
How settings are stored in the file¶
Smart CSV Editor remembers per-file settings — column types, number formatting, rating scale, formulas, column widths, row height, and the header-row flag — by writing a few comment lines at the very top of the file, each starting with #csv:. For example:
#csv:,,,,,,,,
#csv:headerRow=true
#csv:columnTypes=text,text,select,number,currency,currency,percentage,checkbox,rating
Date,Item,Category,Qty,Unit Price,Total,Tip,Paid,Rating
2026-06-01,Latte,Drinks,2,4.50,9.00,15,true,5
...
Key points:
- These lines are standard comments (they start with
#), so they don't corrupt your data. Your actual rows and values are stored as plain, ordinary CSV underneath. - The very first line (
#csv:followed by empty fields) is a width marker — it carries no setting, it just holds the delimiter the same number of times as your columns. It's there so other apps that guess a file's column count or separator from its first line see the grid's real shape instead of a settings line. Smart CSV Editor ignores it on open and regenerates it on each save. - A setting is only written when it differs from the default, so files you haven't customized stay completely clean.
- Other apps (Excel, Numbers, Google Sheets, scripts) read the file as normal CSV. Depending on their comment handling they'll either skip the
#csv:lines or show them as an extra row you can ignore or delete. - Open the file again in Smart CSV Editor and all your typed columns and formatting come right back.
Your values are never rewritten
Column types and formatting are display-only. A currency column shows 1234.5 as $1,234.50, but the file still stores 1234.5. Smart CSV Editor doesn't reformat, round, or alter your underlying data when it saves.
Privacy¶
Everything happens on your device. Files are read, edited, and saved locally — nothing is uploaded to a server. See the Privacy Policy link in Settings for full details.