Sample TSV File
A downloadable sample TSV file and a working reference for tab-separated values — why tabs, how escaping works, and where TSV beats CSV — with 30 employee records.
Data TSV Text format
sample-employees.tsv
Data Preview
30 rows × 7 columns
| 1 | name | department | role | salary | start_date | office | |
| 2 | Marcus Chen | [email protected] | Engineering | Senior Software Engineer | 155000 | 2019-03-15 | San Francisco |
| 3 | Priya Sharma | [email protected] | Engineering | Staff Engineer | 178000 | 2019-06-01 | San Francisco |
| 4 | David Kim | [email protected] | Engineering | Software Engineer | 125000 | 2021-01-10 | New York |
| 5 | Rachel Torres | [email protected] | Engineering | Engineering Manager | 168000 | 2020-02-20 | San Francisco |
| 6 | James Okafor | [email protected] | Engineering | Junior Developer | 92000 | 2024-06-15 | Austin |
| 7 | Lena Vogt | [email protected] | Engineering | DevOps Engineer | 140000 | 2022-04-01 | New York |
| 8 | Amir Patel | [email protected] | Engineering | Backend Engineer | 132000 | 2023-01-09 | London |
| 9 | Sofia Lindberg | [email protected] | Design | Lead Designer | 145000 | 2019-09-12 | New York |
| 10 | Carlos Rivera | [email protected] | Design | UX Designer | 112000 | 2021-07-20 | San Francisco |
| 11 | Hannah Becker | [email protected] | Design | UI Designer | 105000 | 2022-11-01 | London |
| 12 | Yuki Tanaka | [email protected] | Design | Product Designer | 118000 | 2023-03-14 | San Francisco |
| 13 | Olivia Martin | [email protected] | Marketing | VP of Marketing | 165000 | 2019-04-22 | New York |
| 14 | Ethan Brooks | [email protected] | Marketing | Content Strategist | 95000 | 2021-10-05 | Austin |
| 15 | Nina Kowalski | [email protected] | Marketing | SEO Specialist | 88000 | 2022-08-15 | New York |
| 16 | Daniel Ochoa | [email protected] | Marketing | Marketing Analyst | 91000 | 2023-05-20 | Austin |
| 17 | Samira Hassan | [email protected] | Marketing | Social Media Manager | 82000 | 2024-01-08 | London |
| 18 | Tyler Washington | [email protected] | Sales | Sales Director | 158000 | 2019-11-30 | New York |
| 19 | Jessica Huang | [email protected] | Sales | Account Executive | 110000 | 2020-06-14 | San Francisco |
| 20 | Ryan O'Brien | [email protected] | Sales | Account Executive | 105000 | 2021-03-22 | London |
| 21 | Fatima Al-Rashid | [email protected] | Sales | Sales Development Rep | 72000 | 2023-09-01 | Austin |
| 22 | Kevin Dupont | [email protected] | Sales | Solutions Engineer | 135000 | 2022-01-17 | San Francisco |
| 23 | Megan Stewart | [email protected] | Sales | Account Manager | 98000 | 2024-03-11 | New York |
| 24 | Laura Chen | [email protected] | HR | HR Director | 148000 | 2019-08-05 | New York |
| 25 | Brian Nakamura | [email protected] | HR | HR Business Partner | 105000 | 2020-12-01 | San Francisco |
| 26 | Chloe Dubois | [email protected] | HR | Recruiter | 78000 | 2022-05-23 | London |
| 27 | Angela Moretti | [email protected] | HR | People Operations | 85000 | 2023-07-10 | Austin |
| 28 | Isaac Fernandez | [email protected] | Engineering | Frontend Engineer | 128000 | 2022-09-19 | New York |
| 29 | Sarah Mitchell | [email protected] | Design | Design Systems Lead | 138000 | 2020-04-06 | San Francisco |
| 30 | Omar Farah | [email protected] | Engineering | QA Engineer | 95000 | 2024-02-12 | London |
| 31 | Natalie Park | [email protected] | Marketing | Growth Manager | 108000 | 2021-11-28 | San Francisco |
Need more rows in plain CSV? See the Employees sample dataset.
Raw File Contents
sample-employees.tsv
name email department role salary start_date office Marcus Chen [email protected] Engineering Senior Software Engineer 155000 2019-03-15 San Francisco Priya Sharma [email protected] Engineering Staff Engineer 178000 2019-06-01 San Francisco David Kim [email protected] Engineering Software Engineer 125000 2021-01-10 New York Rachel Torres [email protected] Engineering Engineering Manager 168000 2020-02-20 San Francisco James Okafor [email protected] Engineering Junior Developer 92000 2024-06-15 Austin Lena Vogt [email protected] Engineering DevOps Engineer 140000 2022-04-01 New York Amir Patel [email protected] Engineering Backend Engineer 132000 2023-01-09 London Sofia Lindberg [email protected] Design Lead Designer 145000 2019-09-12 New York Carlos Rivera [email protected] Design UX Designer 112000 2021-07-20 San Francisco Hannah Becker [email protected] Design UI Designer 105000 2022-11-01 London Yuki Tanaka [email protected] Design Product Designer 118000 2023-03-14 San Francisco Olivia Martin [email protected] Marketing VP of Marketing 165000 2019-04-22 New York Ethan Brooks [email protected] Marketing Content Strategist 95000 2021-10-05 Austin Nina Kowalski [email protected] Marketing SEO Specialist 88000 2022-08-15 New York Daniel Ochoa [email protected] Marketing Marketing Analyst 91000 2023-05-20 Austin Samira Hassan [email protected] Marketing Social Media Manager 82000 2024-01-08 London Tyler Washington [email protected] Sales Sales Director 158000 2019-11-30 New York Jessica Huang [email protected] Sales Account Executive 110000 2020-06-14 San Francisco Ryan O'Brien [email protected] Sales Account Executive 105000 2021-03-22 London Fatima Al-Rashid [email protected] Sales Sales Development Rep 72000 2023-09-01 Austin Kevin Dupont [email protected] Sales Solutions Engineer 135000 2022-01-17 San Francisco Megan Stewart [email protected] Sales Account Manager 98000 2024-03-11 New York Laura Chen [email protected] HR HR Director 148000 2019-08-05 New York Brian Nakamura [email protected] HR HR Business Partner 105000 2020-12-01 San Francisco Chloe Dubois [email protected] HR Recruiter 78000 2022-05-23 London Angela Moretti [email protected] HR People Operations 85000 2023-07-10 Austin Isaac Fernandez [email protected] Engineering Frontend Engineer 128000 2022-09-19 New York Sarah Mitchell [email protected] Design Design Systems Lead 138000 2020-04-06 San Francisco Omar Farah [email protected] Engineering QA Engineer 95000 2024-02-12 London Natalie Park [email protected] Marketing Growth Manager 108000 2021-11-28 San Francisco
Schema
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| name | string | Employee full name. |
| string | Work email address on the fictional example.com domain. | |
| department | string | One of Engineering, Sales, Marketing, HR, or Design. |
| role | string | Job title within the department. |
| salary | number | Annual salary in USD as an unquoted integer. |
| start_date | date | Hire date in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD). |
| office | string | Office location — San Francisco, New York, Austin, or London. |
About the TSV Format
This page is a reference for tab-separated values, anchored by a small, well-formed example: a header line plus 30 employee records, fields separated by a single tab character (\t, 0x09).
TSV’s pitch is simplicity. The delimiter almost never appears inside real-world values, so the format needs none of CSV’s quoting machinery:
- Splitting is literal.
line.split('\t')is a complete, correct parser for well-formed TSV.cut -f5,awk -F'\t', andsort -t$'\t' -k5 -nall work on this file directly — try sorting it by salary. - No quoting, by design. The strict IANA
text/tab-separated-valuesdefinition forbids tabs and newlines inside fields rather than escaping them. That restriction is what keeps parsers one line long, and it’s also the format’s ceiling: data containing tabs or embedded newlines needs CSV’s quoting rules instead. - What you see is what you parse. Because no character is ever quoted or doubled, the raw bytes and the parsed values are identical — there is no “sloppy parser accepts it, strict parser rejects it” gap to debug.
The one practical hazard is invisibility: tabs and runs of spaces look identical in most editors, so a file that was accidentally space-aligned will split into a single mangled field. If a “TSV” file misbehaves, hex-dump the first line and look for 09 bytes.
TSV shows up as the default export in bioinformatics, in Google Sheets copy-paste (the clipboard payload is TSV), and in Unix pipelines. To move between conventions, TSV to CSV and CSV to TSV convert in the browser.
Looking for sample data rather than a format reference? The Employees dataset serves this same directory as a browsable dataset. All eleven format samples in this section, from JSON to Parquet, carry these identical 30 rows.
FAQ
4 questionsDoes downloading this file send any data to a server?
No. The sample is a static file served directly by the site — nothing is uploaded, processed, or inspected. The TSV and CSV tools linked below run entirely in your browser too.
How does TSV handle a tab inside a value?
The strict IANA definition simply forbids it: fields may not contain tabs or newlines, and there is no quoting mechanism. Some tools borrow CSV-style quoting or escape sequences like \t, but you can't rely on it across parsers — which is TSV's main limitation and the reason CSV remains the safer interchange default for arbitrary text.
Where can I get larger or topic-specific sample data?
This page documents the TSV format itself. For datasets to explore — a richer employee directory plus orders, products, and web traffic — see /sample-data/, starting with the Employees dataset at /sample-data/employees/.
Is the employee data real?
No. All 30 records are fictional, and every email address uses the reserved example.com domain, so the file is safe for demos, tests, and documentation.