Convert semicolon delimited text to JSON

Shiji Pan

1 year ago

Want to convert TXT (“;” semicolon delimited text) file to JSON file?

Try Withdata Data File Converter, a desktop TXT to JSON converter for Windows, MacOS, and Linux, Convert TXT to JSON, Easy and Fast.

Can run in GUI mode, Step by Step, just a few mouse clicks.
Can run in Command line, for Scheduled Tasks and Streams.
Convert files locally and privately, avoid uploading large TXT file(s) to online services.
Support Windows, Linux, and macOS.

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Convert TXT (“;” semicolon delimited text) to JSON

Choose TXT file -> Set JSON file -> Convert TXT to JSON

“Start a New Convert” for “TXT to JSON”.

Select From “File” “TXT” To “File” “JSON”.

1. Open source TXT (“;” semicolon delimited text) file.

Support large TXT file ( > 4GB ).

Source TXT file’s content is like this:

2. Config target JSON file.

3. Set rows options.

4. Convert TXT to JSON.

After converting, you can view the output JSON file.

More about TXT to JSON converter

Download Withdata DataFileConverter
Windows 64 bit
Windows 32 bit
Linux .deb (For Debian, Ubuntu) 64 bit
Linux .rpm (For Red Hat, Fedora, SUSE) 64 bit
MacOS 64 bit

See Video: Convert TXT (“;” semicolon delimited text) file to JSON file in a few clicks

Semicolon-delimited text → JSON reference

What is a semicolon-delimited file?

A semicolon-delimited file is a plain-text file where each line is one record and a semicolon ; separates the fields. It is the usual CSV variant in locales where the decimal separator is a comma, so a comma inside a number would otherwise be ambiguous.

Name;Age;City
Alice;30;New York
Bob;41;San Francisco

To open it in Excel: Data → From Text/CSV, then set the delimiter to ;.

Type mapping

Value kind	in Semicolon-delimited text	in JSON
Int	`1234`	`1234 (number)`
Decimal	`1234.56`	`1234.56 (number)`
Float	`1.234e+10`	`1.234e10 (number)`
Text	`quoted only when it contains a semicolon or a quote`	`"text" (string)`
Long text	`must be quoted; line breaks inside force multi-line records`	`"multi-line\ntext" (escaped newline inside a string)`
Date	`2026-09-18`	`"2026-09-18" (string)`
Datetime	`2026-09-18 14:30:00`	`"2026-09-18T14:30:00Z" (string)`
Binary	`not representable - base64 or hex string`	`"base64:..." (string)`
Boolean	`TRUE / FALSE, or 1 / 0 depending on the writer`	`true / false (boolean)`
JSON	`the whole JSON value quoted, with internal quotes doubled`	`nested object or array, kept as structure`

Dialect differences

Both Semicolon-delimited text and JSON are file formats, so what differs below is how each one chooses to represent a value.

Property	in Semicolon-delimited text	in JSON
identifiers	`Double quotes; a literal quote is doubled ("" )`	`Double quotes; backslash escapes`
dates	`Dates often use D/M/Y or D.M.Y in European exports`	`No date type: dates arrive as strings and the reader must p...`
binary	`Not supported`	`Not supported natively - base64 inside a string`
separator	`Semicolon ";"`	`Braces and commas`
encoding	`Often ANSI or Latin-1 in European exports; UTF-8 needs a BOM`	`UTF-8 by definition`
typing	`None - every field is text`	`string, number, boolean, null, object, array - no date type`
shape	`Flat table, optional header row`	`Nested objects and arrays`
ceiling	`No formal limit; row count bounded by memory`	`Whole document is usually parsed into memory`

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