How to use the delimited column extractor
- 1Paste your data into Delimited text (CSV, TSV…).
- 2Choose the Delimiter; use Tab (TSV) for cells copied from a spreadsheet.
- 3Type the columns into Columns:
2,1,3or2-4, or column names when First row is a header is ticked. - 4Choose an Output delimiter, then Copy or Download the result.
Example
name,email,city Ana Silva,ana@example.com,Lisbon "Lee, Min",min@example.com,Seoul Tom Berg,tom@example.com,"Oslo, Norway"
city,name Lisbon,Ana Silva Seoul,"Lee, Min" "Oslo, Norway",Tom Berg
Settings: Columns = city,name, First row is a header ticked. The columns come out in the order you typed them, and values containing commas stay quoted.
Choosing the delimiter
- Comma (CSV): the usual export format.
- Tab (TSV): what you get when you copy cells from Excel or Google Sheets.
- Semicolon: CSV files from regions where the comma is the decimal separator.
- Pipe |: common in database exports and logs.
- Spaces: any run of spaces or tabs, for aligned output from command-line tools (no quote handling).
- Custom…: any string, such as
::or--. Type\tfor a tab.
Selecting and reordering columns
Column numbers start at 1. Type 2 for one column, 1,3 for several, 2-4 for a range, 3- for column 3 to the last, or 4-2 for a range in reverse. The order you type is the output order, so 3,1 swaps two columns, and a column can appear twice.
With First row is a header ticked you can type names instead of numbers (email,name), matched without regard to case, and mix them with numbers. A column number beyond the widest row produces empty values and a note under the result.
Quoted fields and embedded commas
Quoting follows RFC 4180, the CSV specification: a field wrapped in double quotes may contain the delimiter and even line breaks, and a doubled quote ("") inside it stands for one quote character. So "Lee, Min" is one value, not two.
In the output, a value is quoted again if it contains the output delimiter, a quote or a line break, so the result is valid CSV. A quote in the middle of an unquoted value, as in 5" screen, is kept as a literal character.
Header rows and empty values
When the first row holds column names, tick First row is a header; untick Include the header in the result if you only want the data. Rows shorter than the others give empty values for missing columns instead of shifting data across. Skip empty rows drops blank lines, and Trim spaces around values removes the spaces some exports put after each comma.
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