There are a variety of ways for administrators and users to export data.

Form export
Export an individual record from the user interface. Choose PDF or XML format directly from a form.
List export
Export multiple records from the user interface. Choose CSV, Excel, PDF, or XML format directly from a list.
URL export
Export multiple records from a table using the CSV, Excel, PDF, or XML processor. Specify the table form or list you want to export in the URL.
Web services
Export multiple records from a table when an external client makes a web services request. Create an external application or process to automate the retrieval of data from an instance via web services such as REST or SOAP.
Export sets
Create a file called an export set that contains all the data you want to export.

Export formats

Table 1. Available export formats
Export formatDescription
CSV

Export table records as a comma-separated value text file. Use this option to export the currently displayed fields in the list or form as a text file. Configure the list or form to add or remove fields from the export. When exported to CSV, dot-walked fields appear using their full field name, such as u_assignment_group.parent.

Note: By default, ServiceNow exports all CSV files in Windows-1252 encoding. If you need to export translated data, set the glide.export.csv.charset system property to UTF-8.
Excel Export table records as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Use this option to export the currently displayed fields in the list or form as an Excel spreadsheet. Configure the list or form to add or remove fields from the export.
XML Export table records as an XML document. Use this option to export all data from a table or all data for a particular record. The XML file has an XML element for each column in the table.
Note: Image field data is not preserved when exporting to XML.
PDF

Export table records as a Portable Document Format file. Use this option to export the currently displayed fields in the list or form as a PDF file. Configure the list or form to add or remove fields from the export.

Note: The PDF export processor prints data from left-to-right, which can produce rendering errors when displaying right-to-left language data.
JSON Export the table records as a JSON string. The JSON file has an element for each column in the table.

Column headers

The file type you export to, such as CSV or PDF determines how column headers are exported. In general, formats meant for human consumption such as PDF display the column label, whereas formats meant for machine use such as CSV use the database field_name.
Table 2. Header format by file type
File typeColumn header format
Excel Label
PDF Label
CSV field_name
XML field_name
JSON field_name