Your CSV Opens in One Column. Here's the 10-Second Fix.
Auto-detect delimiter, encoding, line endings, and quote characters. Convert semicolons to commas. Fix UTF-8 encoding. Add BOM for Excel. Repair RFC 4180 violations. All in your browser — file contents never uploaded.
You've Seen This Before
CSV format problems waste hours and block imports. Every one of these is a 30-second fix with the right tool.
Detect, Configure, Download
Upload Your CSV
Drop any CSV file up to 1GB+. SplitForge reads the first 1MB to auto-detect delimiter, encoding, line endings, and quote character — showing a confidence score for each.
Review and Configure
Confirm detected settings. Set target delimiter, encoding, line endings. Enable: Add BOM, Fix RFC 4180 quotes, Trim whitespace, Skip empty lines. Preview 5 rows before committing.
Download Converted File
One click converts the full file in your browser. Stats show rows processed, speed, and every change applied. The file never left your device.
Everything You Can Convert — In One Pass
Delimiter Conversion
- Comma, Semicolon, Tab, Pipe, Colon, Hash, Custom
- Fields containing the target delimiter are auto-quoted (RFC 4180)
- Source auto-detected via per-character count across first 5 rows
Encoding Transformation
- UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, Windows-1252, UTF-16LE/BE, ASCII
- Source detected via jschardet with confidence score
- Add or strip UTF-8 BOM for cross-platform compatibility
Line Ending Normalization
- Windows CRLF, Unix LF, Legacy Mac CR — any direction
- Fixes the trailing \r bug in Python and bash scripts
- Detected automatically from source file sample
RFC 4180 Quote Fixing
- Unescaped quotes converted to doubled-quote escaping
- Missing closing quotes added automatically
- Validate first to see issue count and line numbers before converting
Advanced Cleaning
- Trim whitespace: strips leading and trailing spaces from every field
- Skip empty lines: removes blank rows from output
- Quote character conversion: double to single or custom
Multi-Attribute in One Pass
- Delimiter and line endings changed simultaneously
- Streaming Web Worker: no UI blocking on large files
- Benchmark: 303K rows/sec at 10M rows (Feb 2026)
SplitForge vs The Alternatives
vs Excel "Save As" and vs terminal tools (dos2unix / iconv)
| Feature | SplitForge | Excel Save As | Terminal (iconv/dos2unix) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto-detect delimiter | |||
| Auto-detect encoding | |||
| Convert delimiter | |||
| Convert encoding | |||
| Convert line endings | |||
| Fix RFC 4180 quotes | |||
| Add / strip UTF-8 BOM | |||
| Trim whitespace | |||
| Multi-attribute in 1 pass | |||
| Preview before converting | |||
| No file upload required | |||
| Handles 10M+ rows | |||
| No installation needed | |||
| No coding required |
Right Tool for Your Situation
- You need instant conversion without installing software or writing code
- You work with sensitive data that cannot be uploaded to third-party servers
- You want auto-detection to diagnose the format problem for you
- You need delimiter and line endings changed in one operation
- You hit this problem occasionally and need a repeatable fix
- Batch-converting 50+ files automatically — use Python chardet + pandas
- Running conversions in cron jobs or CI pipelines — use iconv + dos2unix
- Files consistently over 1GB — use server-side ETL
- Need regex-based field value transformation — use Python or dbt
Real Problems, Solved
Excel Import with International Characters
Tab-Delimited to Comma with Embedded Commas
Windows CRLF Breaking Python Script
Edge Cases Handled
The messy real-world formats most tools break on.
Files with Mixed Delimiters
Some exports use commas inside quoted fields plus semicolons as the row delimiter.
Files with BOM Already Present
Files exported from Excel often include a UTF-8 BOM that appears as garbage characters at the start of the first field.
Encoding Detection Below 50% Confidence
Short files or mostly-ASCII content give jschardet insufficient signal.
Fields with Embedded Newlines
CSV fields can legally contain newline characters if the field is quoted (RFC 4180 section 2.6).
Inconsistent Field Counts
Some rows have more or fewer fields than the header — common in manual exports or poorly-designed ETL pipelines.
Who Uses This Tool
Common workflows from the teams SplitForge is built for.
Operations Teams
Receiving files from international partners using semicolon delimiters and ISO-8859-1 encoding. Need a repeatable fix that does not require IT involvement or Python scripts.
Data Engineers
Debugging CRLF issues in pipeline inputs, stripping BOM characters from Excel-generated CSVs, or normalizing encodings before loading into a database or warehouse.
Regulated Industries
Healthcare, finance, and legal teams handling sensitive records that cannot be uploaded to third-party servers. No-upload architecture removes the data transmission risk entirely.
Perfect For
- Data analysts fixing one-off import problems
- Teams receiving files from international partners
- Any team that cannot upload data to external servers
- Developers debugging CRLF issues in scripts
- Files that open as one column in Excel
- Files up to approximately 1GB with millions of rows
Limitations
- No batch processingNeed 50+ files? Use Python chardet + pandas in a loop.
- No API or CLIFor cron jobs or CI pipelines, use iconv + dos2unix.
- Browser memory cap (~1GB)Files over 1GB need server-side ETL.
- No field value transformationNeed regex rewrites on field content? Use Python or dbt.
- Detection uncertain on short filesLow confidence scores mean verify encoding manually.
Time Saved Calculator
Adjust the manual baseline to match your actual workflow. Typical range is 5–45 minutes per file depending on how obvious the problem is and what tools are available. SplitForge baseline: approximately 30 seconds at 10M rows on tested hardware — smaller files complete proportionally faster.
10M Rows in 33 Seconds
Comma to Tab delimiter, Windows CRLF to Unix LF line endings — UTF-8 encoding and double quotes unchanged. Sustained 303K rows/sec throughput.
Operation: Comma to Tab delimiter, Windows CRLF to Unix LF — UTF-8 encoding and double quotes unchanged
Variance: Results vary by hardware, browser, and conversion complexity (±15–20%)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my data private and secure?
What file size can it handle?
What delimiters are supported?
What encodings are supported?
What is a BOM (Byte Order Mark) and when should I add it?
What are line endings and why do they matter?
What is RFC 4180 and why does it matter?
What does Trim Whitespace do?
What does Skip Empty Lines do?
Why does my CSV open in one column in Excel?
What are the limitations?
What browsers are supported?
Stop Fighting CSV Format Issues. Just Fix Them.
Any delimiter. Any encoding. Any line ending. Auto-detected, configured, and converted in seconds.
Also try: Data Cleaner · Remove Duplicates · Data Validator · CSV Splitter