What the CSV cleaner does
Paste CSV/TSV text or load a file, set the parsing rules. The tool detects or uses your selected delimiter, repairs uneven rows, and prepares a cleaned result for review and export.
Add CSV/TSV content
- Paste content into the input box, drop a file, or click browse files. The accepted file choices are
.csv,.tsv, and.txt. - When loading a file, choose UTF-8 or Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) in Encoding. Pasted content is already browser text.
- Changing or emptying the input hides the workspace and invalidates the previous result.
For a loaded file longer than 200,000 characters, the visible textarea shows a truncated preview with a notice. The full loaded content is still processed.
Configure parsing and cleanup options
Choose settings that match the source file before cleaning.
- Input delimiter: Auto-detect checks up to the first 25 physical lines for comma, tab, semicolon, or pipe. You can choose one of those or enter a Custom delimiter. An empty custom delimiter uses comma.
- Output delimiter: choose Same as input, comma, semicolon, tab, or pipe.
- Quote character and Escape style: choose the quote character and either Doubled quote ("") or Backslash (\). These input rules are not auto-detected.
- Output line endings: choose Same as detected, LF (Unix / Mac), or CRLF (Windows).
- Field cleanup: choose None (trim only), Collapse inner whitespace, Lowercase, or Uppercase.
- Set First row is a header, Trim leading/trailing whitespace, Remove empty / separator-only rows, and Remove columns that are empty everywhere as needed.
Clean the structure and handle failures
- Choose the parsing, output, header, and cleanup settings.
- Review the automatically updated detected/applied rules, statistics, warnings, and preview.
Empty or whitespace-only input leaves the options and result surfaces waiting without an error; enter usable content to resume automatic cleaning. Short rows are padded to the common row length. Extra fields in long rows are merged into the final column, and the tool adds warnings for these repairs and for stray quote characters found inside unquoted fields.
Review the preview and warnings
The page reports parsed rows, output rows, columns, ragged rows fixed, empty rows removed, empty columns removed, and warnings. The cleaned-data preview shows up to 100 output rows. The warnings table displays up to the first 500 warnings, and warnings should be reviewed before export.
Cleanup settings can change field values. Trim leading/trailing whitespace, Collapse inner whitespace, Lowercase, and Uppercase intentionally modify text. The tool does not deduplicate records, parse locale-specific numbers, standardize dates, validate emails, or process XLSX workbooks.
Export the cleaned file
After a valid result is available, click Export CSV/TSV to download the cleaned data. The selected output delimiter determines whether the file uses a CSV or TSV extension. Click Export CSV in the warnings section to download the warnings log. Export controls are disabled before a valid result and after the input changes.
Validator workflow
The CSV & TSV Validator and Formatter checks syntax and reports issues without changing anything, then exports a canonical file once input is valid. Use the validator first to see what's wrong, then use this cleaner to fix structural problems.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from the CSV Validator and Formatter?
The validator checks syntax and reports issues without changing anything, then exports a canonical file once input is valid. Use the validator first to see what's wrong, then this cleaner to fix it.
What happens when the input changes?
Changing or emptying the input hides the workspace and invalidates the previous result; usable replacement content is cleaned automatically.
What happens with empty input?
Empty input leaves the tool in its normal waiting state until usable CSV or TSV content is entered.
What happens with a large uploaded file?
Above 200,000 characters, the visible textarea is truncated and shows a notice, but the full loaded content is processed.
Will this tool change my data values?
It can. The field cleanup controls can trim, collapse whitespace, lowercase, or uppercase field text. Long-row repair can also merge extra fields into the final column.
What counts as a ragged row?
A row with a different number of fields than the table's most common row length. Short rows are padded; long rows have extra fields merged into the last column, with a warning and row number.
How many rows and warnings are shown?
The preview shows up to 100 output rows. The on-page warnings table shows up to the first 500 warnings.
How is this different from Remove Duplicate Rows?
This tool repairs CSV/TSV structure. It does not compare rows for exact duplicates. Use Remove Duplicate Rows after the structure is clean.