CSV whitespace and hidden character cleaner: trim spaces and strip zero-width characters from every cell
In short: Upload a list and clean every cell at once: spaces at the ends, doubled spaces, zero-width characters and non-breaking spaces, with a before and after of the rows that changed. Limit: It changes spaces and hidden characters only; it does not fix spelling, case or wrong data.
Upload a CSV or .xlsx file, or paste it with a header row. Choose what to clean: spaces at the start and end of each cell, doubled spaces inside a cell, and hidden characters such as zero-width spaces and non-breaking spaces. You see how many cells changed and download the cleaned list with every column and row kept.
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
Three example rows have 4 cells changed in 2 rows: a padded address, a non-breaking space, a doubled space and a hidden character.
- Cells changed
- 4
- Rows read
- 3
- Columns changed
- 3
What this means for you
Clean text is not a working mailbox; a check shows which addresses still exist.
- Trim, collapse, strip hidden
- Each option can be switched off
- Before and after shown
- Header cleaned too
- Whitespace
- CSV
- Clean
By SimpleVerifier Team · Last updated · Runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to us
Cleaned the cells? Check the addresses in them before the send.
- Download the cleaned list, or use the check button under the result, which carries its addresses across.
- 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 clean spaces and hidden characters in a CSV?
- Upload the file as a CSV or .xlsx, or paste the cells with the header row first.
- Leave the three cleaning options on, or switch off the ones you do not want.
- Read the rows that changed, shown before and after, and the columns they sit in.
- Download the cleaned list, or check its addresses with the button under the result.
Example
- You enter
- Three rows with an address wrapped in spaces, a non-breaking space between Ava and Stone, a doubled space in Acme Inc and a zero-width space in Ben Hart, all three options on.
- You get
- 3 rows read: 4 cells changed in 2 rows and 3 columns. The address loses its spaces, the non-breaking space becomes a plain one, Acme Inc becomes Acme Inc and Ben Hart loses the zero-width space.
- Limits
- Runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded. It changes whitespace and hidden characters only and cannot tell a right value from a wrong one.
What does it change?
It trims spaces from the start and end of each cell, turns runs of spaces, tabs and line breaks inside a cell into one space, and removes zero-width spaces, joiners, direction marks and soft hyphens. It also turns non-breaking spaces and other unusual spaces into plain ones. Each of the three can be switched off.
It changes whitespace and hidden characters only. Letters, digits, punctuation, case and the order of rows and columns are left as they were.
Why do stray spaces and hidden characters matter?
A space after an address can make an import reject the row, and the same name with and without a trailing space is counted as two values when you remove duplicates or match against another list. Zero-width characters look like nothing on screen but still make two identical-looking cells different, and a non-breaking space can stop a name from splitting at the space.
They usually arrive by copy and paste from a website, a PDF or a chat window. Cleaning them before an import is cheaper than finding out which rows failed afterwards.
What if the problem is the file itself?
If accented letters show as strange symbols, use the CSV encoding fixer. To strip hidden characters from a plain list of addresses, use the email invisible character remover. For rows that have the wrong number of columns, try the CSV broken row fixer. See also clean CSV columns before import.
Who uses this tool, and for what?
- Cold emailers
- Clear the spaces that make an import reject a row, before the list goes into a sending tool.
- Marketers
- Make two copies of the same name match again after a paste from a web page.
- Analysts
- Strip invisible characters that make identical-looking values count as different ones in a pivot table.
What can’t this tool tell you?
- It changes spaces and hidden characters only; it does not fix spelling, case or wrong data.
- Turning runs of spaces into one also turns line breaks inside a cell into a space, so a multi-line cell becomes one line.
- Only the first sheet of a workbook is read.
- It does not check whether an address exists; clean cells can still be dead mailboxes.
Common questions
- Does it change the text of my cells?
- Only spaces and hidden characters. Letters, digits, punctuation and case stay as they are.
- Is the header row cleaned too?
- Yes. Spaces and hidden characters are removed from the header names as well, so a column called ' Email' becomes 'Email'.
- What counts as a hidden character?
- Zero-width spaces and joiners, left-to-right and right-to-left marks, the soft hyphen and the byte order mark. They take no room on screen but still count as text.
- Can I keep the doubled spaces?
- Yes. Switch off the option that turns runs of spaces into one and only the other cleaning is done.
- Does it need an email column?
- No. Any CSV works. If the list has a column of addresses, the check button under the result carries them across.
- Is my file uploaded?
- No. The file is read in your browser and goes nowhere.
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.