How to Convert JSON to a Table: View, Sort & Export (CSV, Excel, Markdown)

JSON is great for machines and painful to scan by eye. The fastest way to actually read a JSON array is to turn it into a table — rows and columns you can sort, filter, and drop into a spreadsheet or a doc. This guide shows how to convert JSON to a table cleanly, online and in code, with a plan for the nested data that usually makes it messy.

The quickest way: convert JSON to a table online

Copy a JSON array of objects, paste it into the JSON to table tool, and press Build table. Each object becomes a row, each key a column. From there you can click a header to sort, type to filter, and export.

Pick a tool that runs client-side (ours does) so your data is never uploaded — and, importantly, never turned into a public share link, which some “JSON viewer” sites do by default. Local processing also means there’s no file-size cap.

Use it when: you want to inspect or share a dataset quickly, on any device.

The right input shape

A table is a grid, so the JSON that maps cleanly is an array of objects with shared keys:

[
  { "id": 1, "name": "Ada", "team": "Core" },
  { "id": 2, "name": "Alan", "team": "Research" }
]

The keys of the objects become the columns; the union of all keys is used, so missing fields become empty cells. A single object becomes a one-row table.

Flatten nested data deliberately

Nesting is what turns a clean table into a mess of [object Object]. Two cases:

• Nested objects flatten into dot-notation columns — { "address": { "city": "London" } } becomes a column address.city.
• Nested arrays need a choice: expand to one row per item, join into a single cell, or keep the raw JSON in the cell. Expanding is best when you’ll group or pivot; joining is best for a quick readable summary.

A good tool lets you pick; doing it deliberately is the whole game.

Export to the format you need

A table is only useful if you can take it somewhere. Look for multiple export targets:

• CSV / Excel for spreadsheets and analysis.
• HTML to drop a <table> straight into a web page.
• Markdown for README files, GitHub issues, and docs.

Our tool exports all four, and exports respect the current sorted and filtered view — so you ship exactly what’s on screen.

Convert JSON to a table in Python

With pandas, a JSON array becomes a DataFrame — itself a table — in one line:

import pandas as pd

df = pd.read_json("data.json")        # or pd.json_normalize(data) for nesting
print(df)                              # pretty table in the terminal
df.to_markdown("table.md", index=False)
df.to_csv("table.csv", index=False)

json_normalize flattens nested objects into dotted columns, mirroring what the online tool does.

Convert JSON to an HTML table in JavaScript

In the browser, build a table from an array of objects without a library:

function toTable(rows) {
  const cols = [...new Set(rows.flatMap(Object.keys))];
  const thead = `<tr>${cols.map((c) => `<th>${c}</th>`).join("")}</tr>`;
  const tbody = rows
    .map((r) => `<tr>${cols.map((c) => `<td>${r[c] ?? ""}</td>`).join("")}</tr>`)
    .join("");
  return `<table><thead>${thead}</thead><tbody>${tbody}</tbody></table>`;
}

Add sorting by re-rendering after rows.sort().

Which method should you use?

For a quick look, a sort, or a copy-paste export, use the online JSON to table tool — paste, sort, filter, export, done, with nothing uploaded. Use pandas when the table feeds analysis, and a small JavaScript helper when it lives in a web page. Whatever you choose, decide up front how nested data flattens, and the table will be clean.

Need a specific output? See how to convert JSON to CSV and JSON to Excel. New to the format? Read what is JSON.