Blog
Text tools

Text to column online

Paste a single line of comma-separated (or otherwise delimited) values and the tool splits it into a list, one item per line. The reverse of joining lines: handy when a CSV value or SQL list needs to become a column again for pasting into a spreadsheet.

Your data never leaves this device

Result

Items produced

This page has no server side at all. The table you paste is parsed by JavaScript inside your own browser, the chart is drawn on a canvas element on your machine, and the export file is assembled locally. Nothing is uploaded, stored or written to any log. You can disconnect from the network after the page has loaded and everything will still work — which is the simplest way to verify the claim yourself.

Facts and limits of this method

Default delimiter Comma — can be replaced with any other character or string
Empty delimiter The text isn't split and is output as a single item
Whitespace trimming On by default — removes spaces at the edges of each item after splitting
Multi-character delimiter Supported — for example "; " (semicolon and space) as a single unit

When it misleads you

How it is calculated

The entered text is split into parts on every occurrence of the delimiter typed into the field — an exact substring match is used, not a regular expression.

If "trim whitespace from each item" is on, leading and trailing spaces are removed from every resulting part.

The resulting items are output one per line, in the order they appeared in the original text.

The counter shows the final number of items produced by the split.

Questions and answers

How do I split a string by semicolon?

Type ";" (optionally with a space after it, "; ") into the delimiter field instead of the default comma.

Does it respect quotes like real CSV does?

No, it's a plain substring split with no CSV quote-parsing — if the delimiter character also appears inside a value, it becomes a split point too.

How do I do the reverse — merge a list into one line?

There's a separate tool for that — "string joiner."

Is my text sent anywhere?

No, all the processing runs in your browser.

Related tools

All tools