Skip to content

OpenDocument Spreadsheet to CSV converter

ODS to CSV runs through our table engine, which turns a selected OpenDocument sheet into delimited text and discards workbook presentation.

  • Converted with Table engine · nothing stored
  • Free: 5 conversions a day · 5 MB each
  • Higher limits →

From real runs

What you get — and what changes

  • Sheet selection Changed

    CSV output contains one table, so choose the sheet option when the first ODS tab is not the data tab.

  • Rows and cells Kept

    The rich Pipeline rows exported in order with company, stage, ARR, owner, close_date, and total cells.

  • Formulas Lost

    The cached total value survived as 254500, but the OpenDocument formula did not appear in CSV.

  • Dates Changed

    Date values became ISO timestamps with midnight UTC in the CSV produced from the rich ODS workbook.

  • Merged title Changed

    The merged Q3 Pipeline row became a normal row with generated names for formerly empty cells.

  • Styles Lost

    OpenDocument styles, widths, colors, borders, filters, comments, and charts are outside CSV's model.

  • Additional sheets Lost

    The Notes tab was not present in the default CSV because the serializer writes the first table.

Sample conversions

Merged-title ODS

Input
ODS with a merged Q3 Pipeline report title above real field names and a calculated Total row.
Output
CSV began Q3 Pipeline,column_2,column_3,column_4,column_5, then wrote the field names and data rows.

Basic pipeline fixture

Input
ODS fixture with Pipeline and Notes tabs.
Output
CSV exported only the Pipeline rows: Northwind, Contoso, Fabrikam, and Tailspin with arr numbers and close_date text.

A real OpenDocument Spreadsheet → CSV run

We converted our OpenDocument Spreadsheet sample (10 KB) with Table engine on 2026-09-11. It took 1 ms and produced a 225 B CSV file, 98% smaller than the input. The engine raised 2 warnings, listed below.

Input · sample.ods · 10 KB

OpenDocument spreadsheet: 2 sheets, 7 rows

Paragraphs
27
Headings
0
Tables
2
Rows
7
Slides
0
Pictures
0
Archive parts
6

Output · sample.csv · 225 B

4 data rows × 5 columns; header: company,stage,arr,owner,close_date

Rows
4
Columns
5
Header
company,stage,arr,owner,close_date
  • Workbook contains multiple sheets; each sheet was exposed as its own IR table.
  • Only the first table was written to this single-table format.

First lines of the output

csv
company,stage,arr,owner,close_date
Northwind Traders,Proposal,48000,R. Ayers,2026-10-14
Contoso Ltd,Negotiation,120000,P. Ng,2026-09-30
Fabrikam,Qualified,22500,R. Ayers,2026-11-02
Tailspin Toys,Won,64000,M. Okafor,2026-09-03

Options and when to change them

sheet
Set the worksheet name when the ODS has cover, notes, or lookup tabs before the data.
headerRowIndex
Use when the first row is a report title and the real headers start lower.
dateHandling
Use string handling when the exact displayed date text is required by the importer.
delimiter
Change the delimiter for semicolon CSV or tab-delimited receiving systems.

Do it yourself

python with pandas

bash
python - <<'PY'
import pandas as pd
pd.read_excel("in.ods", engine="odf", sheet_name="Pipeline").to_csv("out.csv", index=False)
PY

Install odfpy with pandas, then check formulas and typed identifiers before import.

OpenDocument Spreadsheet to CSV by API or MCP

The HTTP API and the MCP server run the exact engine this page uses (Table engine); the response carries the same warnings the web converter shows. Check support first with GET /api/v1/pairs?from=ods&to=csv.

curl
curl -X POST https://filetypeconverters.com/api/v1/convert \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FTC_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@input.ods" -F "from=ods" -F "to=csv" \
  -F 'options={"sheet":""}' \
  --output output.csv

Options this engine accepts for OpenDocument Spreadsheet → CSV

KeyApplies toTypeDefault
sheetReading OpenDocument Spreadsheetstring
headerRowIndexReading OpenDocument Spreadsheetnumber0
dateHandlingReading OpenDocument Spreadsheetdate · stringdate
delimiterWriting CSVstring,
newlineWriting CSV ·
API reference

When this is the wrong conversion

  • Do not choose CSV when multiple sheets, cell comments, formulas, or chart objects are important.
  • Use /convert/ods-to-xlsx for an Excel-compatible workbook when sheet structure is still needed.

OpenDocument Spreadsheet to CSV questions

Can ODS to CSV export multiple tabs?

Not into one CSV file. The engine can select a sheet, but a CSV download represents one rectangular table.

What happens to ODS formulas?

The converter writes cached values and drops formula expressions. Recreate calculations in the destination system if they matter.

Why did my ODS title row become columns?

A merged title is flattened into plain cells. Use headerRowIndex when the real field names start below that report title.