---
title: "CSV Modifier"
slug: "csv-modifier"
description: "Information about the CSV modifier."
updated: 2026-04-14T14:29:36Z
published: 2026-04-14T14:29:36Z
canonical: "kb.lasernetgroup.com/csv-modifier"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://kb.lasernetgroup.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# CSV Modifier

**Applies to:** Lasernet Core 11

The CSV modifier is used for transforming XML (eXtended Markup Language) to a CSV file (comma-separated) and vice versa. The modifier enables modern systems to interface with legacy systems.

The modifier can produce both column and character-separated files, plus XML (in a Lasernet Core-defined format) from CSV.

## XML or JSON to CSV Settings ![The CSV modifier Setup tab for XML to CSV conversion.](https://cdn.document360.io/c831ef63-c6b3-48ee-b443-3e33644e4e2e/Images/Documentation/csv-image-org1izvm.png)

| **Conversion** | Choose between converting between XML or JSON to CSV and CSV to XML or JSON. |
| --- | --- |
| **Line Separator** | Determines what line separator to use between lines in the text file. |
| **Use tagname as heading** | If checked, the modifier will create a header line where the names of the tags are used for naming the columns (see below). |
| **Quote using** | If checked, a quote character should be specified, usually `"` , that the modifier will put around the text of each column. When using quotes, the column width must be adjusted accordingly because the quotes are not counted in the width of the column. |
| **Escape quotes with** | If checked, the modifier will search the text in each column for the character entered in **Quote using** and escape it with the character specified. |
| **Character separated** | If checked, the modifier produces character-separated files. Enter the column separator, for example: comma, semicolon, colon, or tab. |
| **Pad with spaces** | When checked, the modifier pads the text in the columns with spaces until they fill out the width determined by the XML file. |

## CSV – XML or JSON Settings

![The CSV modifier Setup tab for CSV to XML conversion.](https://cdn.document360.io/c831ef63-c6b3-48ee-b443-3e33644e4e2e/Images/Documentation/csv-image-x1dbtv5e.png)

| **Conversion** | Choose between converting between XML to CSV and CSV to XML. |
| --- | --- |
| **First line contains headers** | Often the first line in the CSV contains the headers of the fields. Selecting this option will make Lasernet Core use the header names in the XML, plus skip the first line as it does not contain data. |
| **Field separator** | Defines the separator between the fields in the CSV. |
| **Quoted with** | Tells Lasernet Core that fields in the CSV are quoted and with which character. This is useful when a field separator occurs within a field. |
| **Headers** | Optionally set the header names if not included in the CSV or if they are not correct. If not in the CSV or specified here, the fields will be named by Lasernet Core. |

## XML Format

The modifier expects its XML input to be in a specific format. The same format is used for XML output.

```xml
<table> 
  <ItemLine visible="0">
    <Field1 width="20" alignment="left">field value</Field1>
    <Field2 .....
  </ItemLine>
  <ItemLine>
     ....
  </ItemLine>
</table>
```

The name of the root tag (`table`) does not matter. For each line in the resulting text file, there must be one set of `ItemLine` tags.

The `visible` attribute can be used to determine whether the item should be put into the text file or not. If it is missing, the default value is 1.

For each `ItemLine`*,* there are several fields which contain the column data. For column-separated files, the `width `attribute is used for setting the width of the column. If this attribute is missing, the modifier assumes the default value of 20.

The `alignment `attribute can be set to either `left` or `right`. If missing, `left `is assumed.

Use tag names of the files for the header line, if desired.