How to use it
- Paste the text into CSV text. Keep the first line if it holds the column names.
- Choose the Separator in the text, or leave Detect on. Then read Check: green means the TSV is complete.
- Copy the TSV output, or download it as data.tsv.
How the text is read
A record ends at a line break, and a cell is separated from the next by the separator. A cell that starts with a double quote may hold the separator and line breaks, and two double quotes inside it stand for one double quote. This is the rule of RFC 4180.
- Detect counts the tabs, the semicolons and the commas on the first line that are outside quotes. The most frequent one is the separator; on a tie, tab wins, then semicolon.
- An empty line is not a record, and the last record may or may not end with a line break.
What TSV holds, and what it refuses
- The IANA registration of text/tab-separated-values says each record is one line and its fields are separated by a tab.
- A cell cannot hold a tab, because the registration says fields that contain tabs are not allowable in this encoding. The tool stops at such a cell.
- A cell cannot hold a line break, because a record is one line. The tool stops at such a cell too.
- The registration does not describe quoting. The quotes that RFC 4180 used around a cell are therefore removed, and a double quote inside a cell is written as it is.
Rows of different length
The registration says every record must have the same number of fields. The tool still writes a file with rows of different length, but it says how many rows differ from the first, so you can check the source before you use the TSV.
Worked example: a quoted comma and two doubled quotes
The first line is the header. The third cell of row 2 has a comma inside quotes, and the third cell of row 3 holds two doubled quotes, which stand for one quote in the TSV. Each row below is one line of the output, with a tab between the cells.
| Row | TSV line |
|---|---|
| 1 | name [tab] city [tab] note |
| 2 | Ada [tab] London [tab] Analyst, first |
| 3 | Grace [tab] New York [tab] Says "hello" |
Frequently asked questions
Why does the tool refuse a cell that holds a tab?
The IANA registration of text/tab-separated-values says fields that contain tabs are not allowable, and TSV has no escape for them. Replace the tab with a space in that cell, then convert the text again.
Why are the quotes gone around some cells?
RFC 4180 uses quotes to wrap a cell that holds a separator or a line break. Those wrapping quotes are not part of the cell, so the tool drops them, while a double quote inside a cell stays as it is.
What happens to a line break inside a cell?
The tool stops and names the row and the cell, because a TSV record is one line. Join that cell into one line, using a space or another mark, and convert the text again.
Why do some rows have a different number of cells?
The text has rows of unequal length, which RFC 4180 says should not happen. The tool writes them as they are and counts them in a note, so you can fix the source before you use the TSV.
Which separator does Detect choose for a semicolon file?
It chooses the semicolon when the first line has more semicolons than tabs or commas outside quotes. A file whose separator is a semicolon is read that way, and you can also choose Semicolon by hand.
Is the text I paste sent anywhere?
No. The conversion runs in your browser, and nothing you paste is stored or sent to us. Still, do not paste a password or a personal record into a page you do not trust.
Sources
- RFC 4180: Common Format and MIME Type for Comma-Separated Values (CSV) Files
- IANA media types: text/tab-separated-values
Figures and text last checked on Wednesday, November 11, 2026.