Which of the following file formats is best suited to start exploratory analysis within statistical software?

CSV (Comma Separated Values) files are plain-text, tabular data formats that are universally supported and easily parsable by virtually all statistical software. Their simplicity makes them ideal for quickly loading and beginning exploratory data analysis without complex parsing or transformation requirements.

XLSM files are Excel macro-enabled workbooks, which can contain complex formatting, formulas, and macros, making them less ideal and sometimes problematic for direct import into statistical software without potential data integrity issues or extra preprocessing.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a hierarchical data format that requires more complex parsing and transformation into a tabular structure before it can be effectively used for direct exploratory analysis in most statistical software.

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a semi-structured data format often used for web data exchange. Like XML, it typically requires flattening and more complex parsing to convert into a tabular format suitable for statistical analysis.