CSV delimiter converter: semicolon, comma, tab and pipe
In short: Paste or upload a delimited file and choose the separator you want: comma, semicolon, tab or pipe. The current separator is worked out for you, quoted cells that contain it stay intact, and you can add a UTF-8 marker so Excel shows accents correctly. Limit: It changes the separator only; it does not fix encodings, dates or number formats.
Paste the file or upload it, choose the separator to convert to, and download the result. The current separator is detected from the first lines, or you pick it. Cells in quotes that contain the separator are kept whole, so a company name such as "Northwind, Inc." does not split. You can add a UTF-8 marker for Excel and quote every cell.
Price: this tool is free. Checking a whole email list is from $9/mo, and the first 100 checks are free with Google, no card. Check your list free nowSee pricing
Sample result
A semicolon file is written with commas, and Northwind, Inc. stays in one quoted cell.
- Converted
- 3 rows
- Read as
- semicolon
- Written as
- comma
What this means for you
The columns line up in the importer instead of arriving as one long column.
- Comma, semicolon, tab, pipe
- Quoted cells kept whole
- Optional UTF-8 marker
- Uneven rows counted
- CSV
- Separator
- Import
By SimpleVerifier Team · Last updated · Runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to us
Once the columns line up, check the addresses.
- Copy the Email column from the converted file, or use the check button under the result.
- Upload or paste it at /verify. Every address gets a live mailbox check, and the first 100 email checks are free with a Google sign-in, no card.
How do I change the separator in a CSV file?
- Paste the file's text, or upload the CSV, TSV or TXT file. Nothing leaves your browser.
- Leave the current separator on Work it out, or choose it, then choose the separator you want.
- Check the counts: rows with a different number of cells from the first row mean the separator was read wrongly or cells hold it without quotes.
- Download the converted file and import it.
Example
- You enter
- A semicolon file with the header
Name;Company;Emailand two rows, one with the quoted company"Northwind, Inc.", converted to comma. - You get
- The separator is read as a semicolon and the file is written with commas.
Northwind, Inc.stays in one cell, wrapped in quotes because it holds a comma. Three columns and no uneven rows. - Limits
- Runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded. Files up to 25 MB.
Why do some CSV files use semicolons?
In many spreadsheet programs the separator written into a CSV follows the computer's regional settings, and some regions use a comma as the decimal mark, so a semicolon separates the columns instead. A file saved in one region then opens as one long column in another. Converting the separator fixes that. RFC 4180 describes the comma-separated form, with quotes around any field that holds a comma, a quote or a line break, and says implementations differ.
How are quoted cells handled?
Text inside double quotes is read as one cell even if it contains the separator or a line break, and a doubled quote inside it is read as one quote. When the file is written, a cell is put in quotes only if it holds the new separator, a quote or a line break, unless you ask for every cell to be quoted. A cell with an unquoted separator in it is a different problem; the CSV broken row fixer repairs those rows.
What does the UTF-8 marker do?
It is a three-byte mark at the start of the file that some versions of Excel use to recognise UTF-8, so accented names do not turn into odd characters. If a file already shows garbled letters, use the CSV encoding fixer. Leave the marker off for importers that treat it as part of the first header.
Who uses this tool, and for what?
- Cold email senders
- Turn a semicolon export from a European tool into the comma file a sequencer expects.
- Sales ops
- Switch a pipe or tab export from a database into a CSV the CRM will import.
- Agencies
- Normalise files from several clients to one separator before merging them.
What can’t this tool tell you?
- It changes the separator only; it does not fix encodings, dates or number formats.
- A wrongly detected separator is possible on a file with one column; choose it by hand.
- A cell that contains the separator without quotes splits into two cells before conversion.
- It reads text files, not .xlsx workbooks.
Common questions
- Does it change decimal commas inside numbers?
- No. It changes only the separator between cells. A number written 1,5 stays 1,5, which is why it is quoted when the new separator is a comma.
- Can it read an .xlsx file?
- No. Save the sheet as CSV first, or use Excel to CSV.
- What does the pipe option do?
- It writes a pipe character between cells, a format some systems ask for. Cells that contain a pipe are quoted.
- How large a file can it take?
- Files up to 25 MB, read in your browser.
- Is my file uploaded to SimpleVerifier?
- No. The text is read and rewritten in your browser.
Sources
A tidy list can still be full of dead addresses.
Extracting, deduplicating and syntax checks all work on the text of an address. None of them can tell whether the mailbox exists. Only the server that hosts it can answer that, through an SMTP check, and that is what the paid product does.
- Upload the cleaned file as it is: CSVs up to 100,000 rows
- A real SMTP mailbox check on every row, with catch-all detection
- Small list? Starter at $9/mo covers 2,500 emails a month, cancel anytime
Plans from $9 a month, cancel anytime, no contract. Sign in with Google and your first 100 email checks are free, no card. The free tools stay free either way.