What This Tool Does
When data arrives as a flat delimited string — comma-separated values, a semicolon-joined export, a pipe-delimited database dump — editing and reviewing it as one long line is awkward. This tool splits each delimited value onto its own line, giving you a clean vertical list that is far easier to read, sort, deduplicate, or paste into another tool. You can choose from five common delimiters, automatically trim leading and trailing whitespace around each item, and skip empty entries produced by trailing delimiters or doubled separators. Multiple input lines are each split independently, so you can process several rows of CSV or similar formats in a single pass.
How to Use
- Paste your delimited text into the input panel — one group of values per line.
- Select the delimiter that separates your values: Comma, Semicolon, Pipe, Space, or Tab.
- Keep “Trim whitespace” on to remove padding around each item (recommended).
- Keep “Skip empty items” on to ignore blank entries from trailing or doubled delimiters.
- Copy or download the resulting line-per-item list from the output panel.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I split multiple rows at once?
Yes. Each line in the input is split independently. Paste a multi-row CSV or any multi-line delimited block and every row will be expanded into individual lines in the output, all in one operation. The rows are processed top to bottom, and their items appear in the output in the same sequence, so the order is always preserved.
What does “Skip empty items” do?
If your input ends with a delimiter — like “red, green, blue,” — the split operation produces an empty string at the end. Similarly, doubled delimiters such as “red,,blue” produce a blank entry in the middle. With “Skip empty items” enabled those blank entries are dropped, leaving only meaningful values in the output. Turn it off if you specifically need to preserve empty slots for positional data.
How do I split tab-separated values (TSV)?
Select the “Tab” delimiter. TSV files exported from spreadsheet applications like Excel or Google Sheets use a tab character between columns. After splitting you will have one column value per line, which you can further process with the Sort Lines or Remove Duplicate Lines tools before merging the data back together using the List Merger tool.
Does this handle quoted CSV fields with commas inside them?
No. This tool performs a simple string split on the chosen delimiter and does not parse RFC 4180 CSV quoting rules. If your data contains fields like “"Smith, John"" the comma inside the quotes will still be used as a split point. For quoted CSV parsing you would need a dedicated CSV tool or a short script using a proper CSV library.