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Delimiter Converter

Change the delimiter of tabular text between comma, tab, semicolon, pipe, space, or a custom character. Auto-detects the input and re-quotes fields safely.

Delimiter converter

Re-delimit tabular text

Load a sample:

Input delimiter

Detected: Comma
Parsing on a comma. The first row has the most of this character outside quotes.

Output delimiter

Output options

Wrap a field in quotes only when it contains the output delimiter, a quote, or a line break (RFC 4180).

LF is standard on Unix and macOS. CRLF is what Excel writes on Windows.

Up to 2,000,000 characters. Quoted fields, embedded delimiters, and multi-line cells are handled.

Parsed shape

Rows

5

Columns

4

Shortest row

4

Ragged rows

0

Table preview

First 5 parsed rows from the input, using the current input delimiter.

idnamecitynote
1Smith, AdaLondonLead, EU
2RahmanDhakaContractor
3O'NeilDublinQuote " inside
4TanakaTokyoVIP

Which delimiter should I use?

  • Comma is the default CSV delimiter and the safest for sharing, because almost every tool reads it.
  • Semicolon is the CSV default in locales where the comma is the decimal separator, so Excel in much of Europe expects it.
  • Tab is what spreadsheets put on the clipboard when you copy cells, and what many database exports use.
  • Pipe is common in mainframe and ETL extracts because data rarely contains it, so quoting is seldom needed.

How quoting is handled

  • On input, a field wrapped in double quotes can contain the delimiter, a line break, or a doubled quote "" without splitting the column.
  • On output, quoting is re-evaluated for the new delimiter. A field that needed quotes for a comma may not need them for a pipe, and the reverse.
  • Choose Always quote for strict importers, or Never quote only when you are sure no field contains the output delimiter.
  • To go further, the CSV to JSON, CSV viewer, and fixed-width converters pick up where this tool leaves off.

How to use

  1. Paste your delimited text into the input box, or load one of the samples.
  2. Leave Detect automatically on to guess the input delimiter, or turn it off and pick comma, tab, semicolon, pipe, space, or a custom character.
  3. Choose the output delimiter you want to convert to.
  4. Set the quoting policy, line ending, and whether to trim fields or skip blank lines.
  5. Copy the converted output or download it, and check the parsed-shape summary for any ragged rows.

About this tool

Delimiter Converter re-delimits tabular text from any single-character separator to any other, all in your browser. A comma-separated file becomes tab, pipe, or semicolon separated (and back) by choosing the input and output delimiters independently. That independence is the point: CSV-to-X tools assume comma input, but real data arrives in whatever a database export, a European spreadsheet, an ETL pipeline, or a legacy system happened to use. Semicolon is the CSV default in locales where the comma is the decimal separator, pipe is common in mainframe and extract files, and tab is what every spreadsheet copies to the clipboard. The input delimiter can be detected automatically from the first row, or set by hand to comma, tab, semicolon, pipe, space, or a custom character. The parser is quote-aware: a field wrapped in double quotes may contain the delimiter, a line break, or a doubled quote without being split, following the RFC 4180 convention, so a comma inside a quoted name stays part of the data rather than starting a new column. On output, quoting is re-evaluated against the new delimiter, because a field that needed quotes for a comma may not need them for a pipe, and a field that was bare may now need them. You can quote only when needed, always quote every field for strict importers, or never quote when you are certain no field contains the output delimiter. Line endings switch between LF and CRLF, fields can be trimmed of surrounding whitespace, and blank lines can be skipped. A parsed-shape summary reports row and column counts and flags rows whose column count differs from the first, which is the usual sign that the input delimiter is wrong or a field is missing. Everything runs locally, so the text you paste is never uploaded or stored.

Free to use. Works in your browser. No signup, no login.

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