You need a "spec" just the same for a CSV: does it have headers, is there a consistent column ordering, etc. Control characters work the exact same as commas an

You need a "spec" just the same for a CSV: does it have headers, is there a consistent column ordering, etc. Control characters work the exact same as commas and newlines, but you don't have to worry about escaping them because (unless your data is binary or recursive) the control characters won't show up in the data!