Gzip (GNU Zip) is a lossless compression tool and file format that uses the . It is particularly effective for CSV files because they are plain text with many repeating patterns (like headers, common dates, or category names), which Gzip can shrink significantly.
Modern data libraries often handle Gzipped CSVs natively, meaning you don't always have to manually decompress them. [NodeJS] Gzip, CSV in-memory file handling using Streams
: Compressing a CSV into a .csv.gz format can reduce file size by up to 90%, depending on data redundancy.
: While compression and decompression require CPU cycles, the reduced file size leads to faster network transfers and lower storage costs.
: One unique feature of Gzip is that multiple .gz files can be directly concatenated (e.g., using a cat command) to create a single valid compressed file. How to Use Gzipped CSVs in Programming