About the List Converter
Lists rarely arrive in the shape the next system expects. A spreadsheet column gives you one value per line, an SQL IN clause wants comma-separated quoted strings, and a config file wants a pipe-delimited string on a single line. The List Converter moves a list between those shapes without hand-editing every row.
How to use it
- 01Paste your list into the input panel.
- 02Choose how the input should be split: new lines, commas, semicolons or any whitespace.
- 03Choose the separator for the output, and optionally wrap each item in double quotes.
- 04Use the trim and drop-empty options to clean stray spacing and blank rows.
- 05Copy the result, or download it as a plain text file.
Features
- Four input splitting modes, including whitespace for values pasted from a terminal
- Comma, newline, space and pipe output separators
- Optional double-quoting with inner quotes escaped, ready for SQL or JSON arrays
- Per-item trimming and blank-item removal
- Live count of items, output characters and the longest item
Practical examples
Building an SQL IN clause
Paste a column of order IDs copied from a spreadsheet, split on new lines, join with commas and enable quoting to get "1001", "1002", "1003" ready to drop between parentheses.
Flattening a comma list for review
Paste a long comma-separated tag string, split on commas and join with new lines so you can read, sort or deduplicate the values one per row.
Limitations
- Quoting uses double quotes with backslash escaping, which suits JSON and most SQL dialects but not every database.
- Splitting on commas is literal — it does not understand quoted fields containing commas. For true CSV parsing, use the CSV to JSON converter.
Privacy
Splitting and joining happen entirely in your browser tab using ordinary JavaScript string operations. Your list is never uploaded, logged or stored.
Read the full privacy policy for how the site as a whole handles data.
Frequently asked questions
Can it handle a very long list?
Yes. Tens of thousands of rows process instantly because the work is a single split-and-join in memory. Extremely large pastes are limited only by your browser's memory.
Why are some items disappearing?
The drop-empty option removes items that are blank after trimming. Turn it off if you need to preserve empty positions.
Does quoting escape existing quotes?
Yes. A double quote inside an item is escaped with a backslash so the resulting string stays parseable.