# CSV vs Acta
CSV is a simple appendable text representation.
## CSV advantages
- Universally supported, human-readable, and easy to debug.
- Rows can be appended with almost no format machinery.
- Suitable for interchange and small datasets.
## Acta advantages
- Declared types eliminate repeated parsing and prevent mixed-type columns.
- Column encodings and compression reduce storage size.
- Per-block time bounds and statistics allow range pruning.
- Readers can decode only requested columns.
## Trade-off
CSV favors simplicity and interoperability. Acta trades readability for smaller files and faster typed analytical access.