Extract text from EDI files
To convert your EDI file to another format, you need Microsoft Excel or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "B2B Transaction File" file type, you need software like Microsoft Excel or a similar tool.
The .EDI file extension is primarily associated with Electronic Data Interchange, a standardized format used globally for business-to-business (B2B) data exchange. Unlike a regular document, an EDI file functions as a "digital envelope" containing structured transaction data - such as purchase orders (EDI 850), invoices (EDI 810), and shipping notices (EDI 856) - that allows computer systems to communicate directly without manual data entry. These files strictly follow standards like ANSI ASC X12 (common in North America) or UN/EDIFACT (common in Europe/Asia).
Because EDI files are designed for machines, they appear as dense, unreadable blocks of text to the human eye, full of delimiters (like *, ~, or :) and codes rather than clear labels. Users frequently encounter these files when a supplier or logistics partner sends data directly, but they cannot simply double-click to view the contents in a readable way. Opening them in a standard text editor like Notepad++ reveals the raw code, which is difficult to interpret without technical knowledge. To make this data useful for auditing, reporting, or manual processing, users typically need to convert .EDI files into human-readable formats like Microsoft Excel (.XLSX), CSV, or PDF. For developers and system integrators, converting EDI to XML or JSON is essential for importing legacy B2B data into modern web applications.
*Note: In educational contexts (specifically French biology curriculums), an .EDI file may also be a genetic sequence file used by software like Anagène.*
Convert.Guru analyzes your EDI file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted TXT, X12, PDF, EDIFACT, 835, XML, ZIP, 837, XLSX, 810, CSV, DAT and HTML files.
If you want to convert EDI file to XML, JSON, PDF, CSV, TEXT, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF or DAT, you can use Microsoft Excel or similar software from the "Business Data Interchange" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to EDI, try Microsoft Excel or another comparable tool in the "Business Data Interchange" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our EDI converter.