Text separator

Switch the separator in any list

Data rarely arrives in the format you need. A spreadsheet column pastes as one item per line, but your email app wants recipients separated by semicolons. A tag list is separated by spaces, but your CMS needs one per line. The text separator converts text from one separator to another in one step.

Tell it what your text is currently separated by (new line, space, semicolon, dash, pipe or dot) and what you want to separate by, and it rewrites the list. For example, a column of email addresses becomes [email protected];[email protected];[email protected], the format Outlook uses for multiple recipients.

It saves the tedious find-and-replace work that usually goes with moving lists between spreadsheets, documents, forms and code.

How to use the text separator

1. Paste your text or list.
2. Choose what it's currently separated by.
3. Choose the separator you want instead.
4. Submit, then copy the result.

Examples

A spreadsheet column to a single line

Input:

red
blue
green

Output: red blue green

Separated by: new line. Separate by: space. Each line break becomes one space.

A semicolon list into pipes

Input: a;b;c

Output: a|b|c

Separated by ;, separate by |. Handy for CMS tag fields and some CSV variants.

Version numbers with dashes

Input: 1.2.3

Output: 1-2-3

Separated by ., separate by -. Every dot is replaced, so don't run sentences through this setting.

Common uses

• Turning a spreadsheet column into a single semicolon- or pipe-separated line.
• Splitting a semicolon-, pipe- or space-separated list into one item per line.
• Preparing lists of IDs, tags or keywords for forms, code or ad platforms.
• Converting pipe- or semicolon-separated exports into something readable.
• Formatting tag lists for blogs and online stores.

Tips and things to know

• Clean the list first: remove repeats with the duplicate lines remover and sort it with the list alphabetizer.
• If your items contain the separator you're converting to (for example spaces inside names), choose a different separator such as a pipe.
• Need commas? Spreadsheets can do it: =TEXTJOIN(", ", TRUE, A1:A50) joins a column with commas in Excel and Google Sheets.
• To grab emails or links out of messy text first, use the email extractor or URL extractor.

Edge cases and limitations

• The replacement is exact. a; b; c with "separated by ;" keeps the spaces after each semicolon, giving a| b| c.
• The text is cleaned before converting: HTML tags are stripped and leading and trailing spaces are trimmed, so <b>red</b> becomes red.
• Commas and tabs aren't in the separator list. For comma-separated output, use the spreadsheet formula in the tips above.
• If the separator you convert from also appears inside items (a dot in v1.2, a dash in a name), those get replaced too.

Frequently asked questions

How do I turn a column into a single line?

Paste the column, set the current separator to new line, choose the new separator (such as semicolon or space), and submit.

Can I convert a list back to one item per line?

Yes. Set the current separator to the one your list uses and the new separator to new line.

Which separators are supported?

New line, space, semicolon (;), dash (-), pipe (|) and dot (.).

Is there a limit on list size?

It handles long lists comfortably. Very large datasets are better processed in a spreadsheet or script.

Related tools

• Duplicate lines remover: Easily remove duplicate lines from a text.
• List alphabetizer: Order text lines in alphabetical order (A-Z or Z-A) with ease.
• Email extractor: Extract email addresses from any kind of text content.
• Reverse list: Reverse a list of given text lines.
• List randomizer: Easily convert a list of given text into a randomized list.