Convert a JSON Array to a Table

Most API responses are arrays of objects — lists of users, orders, products, and so on. A tree view is great for seeing the nesting, but when you want to compare values across records, a table is far easier to scan. This guide shows how JSON arrays map to tables, and how to convert one in seconds.

When JSON can become a table

A table needs rows and columns. In JSON, an array of objects gives you exactly that: each object is a row, and each key is a column.

{
  "users": [
    { "name": "Tom", "age": 30, "city": "Beijing" },
    { "name": "Jerry", "age": 25, "city": "Shanghai" }
  ]
}

Converted to a table, name, age, and city become the columns, and each user becomes a row.

How nested objects are flattened

Real data is rarely flat — objects often contain other objects. When you convert to a table, nested fields are flattened automatically using dot notation:

{ "name": "Tom", "addr": { "city": "Beijing", "zip": "100000" } }

This becomes two columns: addr.city and addr.zip. No code required — multi-level data is spread out into a two-dimensional table for you.

Convert in two steps

In the JSON formatter, it takes two steps:

1. Paste your JSON into the editor (or drag in a .json file).
2. Click the Table tab — the tool finds the array of objects and renders it as a table.

It also handles two things for you automatically:

• Skips GeoJSON geometry: if your data mixes map coordinates with business arrays, it picks the business data instead of flattening coordinate points.
• Caps very large data: it shows the first 1,000 rows and warns you, so the browser doesn’t freeze.

Common use cases

• Check API data: convert a returned array into a table and compare fields row by row.
• Preview before exporting: confirm the structure before exporting to CSV or Excel.
• Share in documents: a table is much easier to read in a screenshot than raw JSON.

Related reading

• Fix “Unexpected end of JSON input” Error
• Fix “Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0”
• Back to the JSON formatter