Property list files are a great way to store data within your iOS or OS/X application - they're well-structured and super-easy to parse. CSV (comma- separated variable) files are a great to export data from a spreadsheet which is much easier to edit than the raw PLIST files.

csv2plist is a utility program that converts files from CSV format into property lists. The root level of the property list will be an array and each element of the array will be a dictionary, corresponding to the equivalent row in the spreadsheet. The keys of the dictionary are the column names and the values are the column values.

csv2plist is a ruby gem. Install it with the following command

$ sudo gem install csv2plist

If your terminal environment is set up sanely, you should be able to run it by simply invoking it at a shell prompt:

$ csv2plist -h
csv2plist converts a .....

If your CSV file contains a header row, and only contains string values, then you can simply do this:

$ csv2plist sample.csv

This will create a property list file called sample.plist.

See csv2plist -h for other options.

If test.csv contains the following:

name,age
John,23
Mark,25

Converting it with csv2plist test.csv will produce a file containing:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
	<dict>
		<key>age</key>
		<string>23</string>
		<key>name</key>
		<string>John</string>
	</dict>
	<dict>
		<key>age</key>
		<string>25</string>
		<key>name</key>
		<string>Mark</string>
	</dict>
</array>
</plist>