Change CSV Delimiter Online
Change a CSV file's separator without breaking commas inside quoted descriptions, addresses, or notes. Choose the input delimiter, choose a new comma, semicolon, tab, or pipe delimiter, and the browser parses the table before writing it back with correct quoting. This is useful when a regional spreadsheet expects semicolon CSV, a command-line import requires tabs, or a data warehouse accepts pipes. The tool changes separators only: it does not sort rows, rename headers, coerce types, remove duplicate records, or change character encoding.
Use this without the search next time. Prathom Workbench puts Prathom's tools in your toolbar.
Add to Chrome — freeWhat it does
- Comma, semicolon, tab, and pipe input
- Comma, semicolon, tab, and pipe output
- Quoted commas and line breaks preserved
- Header and row counts for review
- RFC 4180 quoting, not a naive split
How to use CSV Delimiter Changer
- 1
Paste the source CSV
Paste the complete table, including its header if it has one. The parser reads records and fields rather than doing a blind character replacement.
- 2
Select the current separator
Choose the delimiter that currently separates columns. If a comma appears inside a quoted field, it remains data and does not need special treatment.
- 3
Select the new separator
Choose comma, semicolon, tab, or pipe. The output writer quotes any value that contains the chosen separator, a quote, or a line break.
- 4
Review and download
Check the row and column counts, inspect a field containing punctuation, then copy or download the rewritten table for the destination application.
How it works
Import verification
After changing the delimiter, open the output in the application that will consume it. Check a row containing a comma inside a quoted value, an empty field, a leading zero, and a newline inside a quoted cell. If columns shift, the issue may be malformed source quoting rather than the selected separator. Confirm encoding when accented characters appear differently, and keep the source until the destination parses the converted file.
Delimiter choices
Choose the delimiter used by the destination rather than the one that merely looks most readable in the preview. Commas are common, but tabs, semicolons, and pipes are often needed when values already contain commas. Check quoted fields, line breaks inside a cell, escaped quotes, and the encoding of accented text before importing the result into a spreadsheet or database. Keep the original CSV because changing separators cannot fix ambiguous rows or recover a file that was already parsed incorrectly.
The parser walks the input character by character and keeps a quoted state. A
separator ends a field only when the parser is outside quotes. A line break ends a
record in the same way. Two quote characters inside a quoted field represent one
literal quote, which is the conventional CSV escape. This small state machine is why
the tool can safely distinguish the comma in London, UK from the comma between two
columns.
After parsing, the writer joins fields with the selected output delimiter. Any value containing a delimiter, quote, carriage return, or line feed is wrapped in quotes, and existing quotes are doubled. Short rows are padded to the widest row so a field cannot shift silently. The tool intentionally has no autodetection mode: selecting the source separator makes an ambiguous file an explicit user decision.
When to use it
Use this when a spreadsheet opens every row in one column, a regional application expects semicolons, or an import command wants tab-separated records. Inspect the output as plain text when the separator is invisible, then test a sample in the destination. For malformed quotes, mixed separators, or multi-gigabyte exports, use the owning system's CSV parser and retain the original file for recovery.
Examples
Comma CSV for a semicolon locale
The comma inside the note remains part of the value. Only the structural comma between columns becomes a semicolon, so the destination spreadsheet can use its regional separator without changing the note.
CSV for a tab-separated import
A tab is invisible in a plain-text preview, but it is a real field separator in the downloaded output. This is useful for command-line tools that reserve commas for free-form text.
Frequently asked questions
Does changing a CSV delimiter replace every comma character?
No. The tool parses the table first, so a comma inside a quoted field remains part of that field. It then serializes each value with the new separator and adds quotes wherever the output needs them. A blind search-and-replace would corrupt addresses, descriptions, and notes that contain punctuation.
Which CSV separators can I use?
The interface supports comma, semicolon, tab, and pipe as both input and output delimiters. These cover common spreadsheet locales, TSV exports, and simple data feeds. A file using a multi-character separator or a delimiter that changes inside the same document needs a more specialized parser and should not be guessed here.
Will the delimiter changer alter data types or line endings?
It changes the structural separator and normalizes output line endings to CRLF, but it does not calculate values, rename columns, sort rows, or infer numbers and dates. If the destination depends on a particular encoding, formula syntax, or original byte-for-byte representation, validate the downloaded file there.
Is the source CSV uploaded?
No. Parsing and serialization happen in the browser tab, and the download is created from a local Blob. Network extensions and your own browser profile can still observe normal device activity, so do not treat a local tool as a guarantee against every endpoint on a managed computer.