<s>
Formats	O
that	O
use	O
delimiter-separated	B-Protocol
values	I-Protocol
(	O
also	O
DSV	O
)	O
store	O
two-dimensional	O
arrays	O
of	O
data	O
by	O
separating	O
the	O
values	O
in	O
each	O
row	O
with	O
specific	O
delimiter	B-Algorithm
characters	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Most	O
database	O
and	O
spreadsheet	B-Application
programs	I-Application
are	O
able	O
to	O
read	O
or	O
save	O
data	O
in	O
a	O
delimited	B-Algorithm
format	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Due	O
to	O
their	O
wide	O
support	O
,	O
DSV	O
files	O
can	O
be	O
used	O
in	O
data	B-General_Concept
exchange	I-General_Concept
among	O
many	O
applications	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
delimited	B-Protocol
text	I-Protocol
file	I-Protocol
is	O
a	O
text	B-General_Concept
file	I-General_Concept
used	O
to	O
store	O
data	O
,	O
in	O
which	O
each	O
line	O
represents	O
a	O
single	O
book	O
,	O
company	O
,	O
or	O
other	O
thing	O
,	O
and	O
each	O
line	O
has	O
fields	O
separated	O
by	O
the	O
delimiter	B-Algorithm
.	O
</s>
<s>
Compared	O
to	O
the	O
kind	O
of	O
flat	B-Application
file	I-Application
that	O
uses	O
spaces	O
to	O
force	O
every	O
field	O
to	O
the	O
same	O
width	O
,	O
a	O
delimited	B-Protocol
file	I-Protocol
has	O
the	O
advantage	O
of	O
allowing	O
field	O
values	O
of	O
any	O
length	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Any	O
character	O
may	O
be	O
used	O
to	O
separate	O
the	O
values	O
,	O
but	O
the	O
most	O
common	O
delimiters	B-Algorithm
are	O
the	O
comma	O
,	O
tab	O
,	O
and	O
colon	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
example	O
,	O
the	O
following	O
fields	O
in	O
each	O
record	O
are	O
delimited	B-Algorithm
by	O
commas	O
,	O
and	O
each	O
record	O
by	O
newlines	O
:	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
necessitates	O
a	O
way	O
to	O
"	O
escape	B-Algorithm
"	O
the	O
field	O
wrapper	O
itself	O
,	O
in	O
this	O
case	O
the	O
double	O
quote	O
;	O
it	O
is	O
customary	O
to	O
double	O
the	O
double	O
quotes	O
actually	O
contained	O
in	O
a	O
field	O
as	O
with	O
those	O
surrounding	O
"	O
Hank	O
"	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
this	O
way	O
,	O
any	O
ASCII	B-Protocol
text	I-Protocol
including	O
newlines	O
can	O
be	O
contained	O
in	O
a	O
field	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
ASCII	B-Protocol
includes	O
several	O
control	O
characters	O
that	O
are	O
intended	O
to	O
be	O
used	O
as	O
delimiters	B-Algorithm
.	O
</s>
<s>
Due	O
to	O
their	O
widespread	O
use	O
,	O
comma	O
-	O
and	O
tab-delimited	B-Protocol
text	B-General_Concept
files	I-General_Concept
can	O
be	O
opened	O
by	O
several	O
kinds	O
of	O
applications	O
,	O
including	O
most	O
spreadsheet	B-Application
programs	I-Application
and	O
statistical	B-Algorithm
packages	I-Algorithm
,	O
sometimes	O
even	O
without	O
the	O
user	O
designating	O
which	O
delimiter	B-Algorithm
has	O
been	O
used	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Despite	O
that	O
each	O
of	O
those	O
applications	O
has	O
its	O
own	O
database	B-General_Concept
design	I-General_Concept
and	O
its	O
own	O
file	O
format	O
(	O
for	O
example	O
,	O
accdb	O
or	O
xlsx	O
)	O
,	O
they	O
can	O
all	O
map	O
the	O
fields	O
in	O
a	O
DSV	O
file	O
to	O
their	O
own	O
data	B-Application
model	I-Application
and	O
format	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Typically	O
a	O
delimited	B-Protocol
file	I-Protocol
format	O
is	O
indicated	O
by	O
a	O
specification	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Some	O
specifications	O
provide	O
conventions	O
for	O
avoiding	O
delimiter	B-Algorithm
collision	O
,	O
others	O
do	O
not	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Delimiter	B-Algorithm
collision	O
is	O
a	O
problem	O
that	O
occurs	O
when	O
a	O
character	O
that	O
is	O
intended	O
as	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
data	O
gets	O
interpreted	O
as	O
a	O
delimiter	B-Algorithm
instead	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Most	O
such	O
files	O
avoid	O
delimiter	B-Algorithm
collision	O
either	O
by	O
surrounding	O
all	O
data	O
fields	O
in	O
double	O
quotes	O
,	O
or	O
only	O
quoting	O
those	O
data	O
fields	O
that	O
contain	O
the	O
delimiter	B-Algorithm
character	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
One	O
problem	O
with	O
tab-delimited	B-Protocol
text	B-General_Concept
files	I-General_Concept
is	O
that	O
tabs	O
are	O
difficult	O
to	O
distinguish	O
from	O
spaces	O
;	O
therefore	O
,	O
there	O
are	O
sometimes	O
problems	O
with	O
the	O
files	O
being	O
corrupted	O
when	O
people	O
try	O
to	O
edit	O
them	O
by	O
hand	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Depending	O
on	O
the	O
data	O
itself	O
,	O
it	O
may	O
be	O
beneficial	O
to	O
use	O
non-standard	O
characters	O
such	O
as	O
the	O
tilde	O
(	O
~	O
)	O
as	O
delimiters	B-Algorithm
.	O
</s>
