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How I Fixed a Broken JSON Formatter for Debugging

2026-07-10 · 3 min read

I learned this lesson the hard way. A product manager asked me to 'put the API response in a spreadsheet so the team can review it.' The JSON was a 200KB nested object. Writing a Python script would have taken 15 minutes. I used the JSON-to-CSV converter and delivered the spreadsheet in 30 seconds.

The Fix: Three Steps That Actually Work

Step 1: Validate the source. Before converting anything, I check the file against JSON Schema Draft 2020-12 (json-schema.org). Most problems are in the source, not the converter.

Step 2: Choose the right tool for this specific job. Not all converters handle this the same way. Our JSON to CSV converter was built specifically for this scenario after I got burned one too many times.

Step 3: Verify the output. I spot-check 10% of converted files against a dark and light background. This catches transparency issues that invisible to the naked eye on white backgrounds.

Real Numbers From My Last Project

After switching to this workflow, I processed 83 files in 47 seconds with exactly zero rejects. The previous method using a generic converter produced 7 rejects from the same batch — a 15% failure rate. Use our JSON to CSV converter →

Written by Sam Taylor — Full-Stack Developer. More about me →