What is the key characteristic of CSV (Comma-Separated Values) and TSV (Tab-Separated Values) formats?

The key characteristic of CSV (Comma-Separated Values) and TSV (Tab-Separated Values) formats is the utilization of commas or tabs to separate values. This means that in a CSV file, individual data fields are divided by commas, while in a TSV file, the separation is done using tab characters. This straightforward format allows for easy reading and writing of data in a plain text format, making it widely used for data exchange between different applications.

In these formats, each line typically represents a data record, with the values corresponding to the fields in that record being separated by the specified delimiter (either a comma for CSV or a tab for TSV). This simple structure is a key feature that enables the formats to be both human-readable and easily processed by various programming languages and software tools.

Other options, such as the use of formatting tags or the organization into relational tables, introduce additional complexity that is not inherent to CSV and TSV formats. Similarly, the inclusion of key-value pairs is more characteristic of formats like JSON or XML rather than the plain text nature of CSV and TSV.