List & Column Converter
Spreadsheet column in, comma-separated list out, or the reverse. De-duplicate, sort and quote every value on the way through.
How to use
- Paste the column or list into the Input pane on the left.
- Set Split input by to whatever separates the values you just pasted. New line is already selected, which is what a spreadsheet column gives you.
- Set Join output with to the shape you want back. Comma is the default there.
- Tick Remove duplicates if each value should appear once, and Ignore case for duplicates when Alice and alice are the same person to you.
- Pick Sort A → Z or Sort Z → A if order matters, or leave it on Original order to keep the sequence you pasted.
- Check the item count in the Output header, then press the copy button beside it.
About this tool
Copy a column out of Excel and it lands as one value per line. The field you are pasting into wants a comma-separated list. Going the other way, splitting somebody's comma-separated list back into rows, comes up just as often. Both are the same two dropdowns here: set Split input by to describe what you pasted, set Join output with to describe what you need, and the right pane keeps up with every keystroke. Its label counts the items for you.
Six separators are built in on each side. New line, comma, semicolon, tab, space and pipe. A seventh option, Custom, opens a text box for whatever else you are dealing with, a bullet character or a double pipe or the exact string you are splitting on. Space after delimiter is ticked by default, which is why the output reads a, b, c rather than a,b,c. It is ignored when you join with tabs or spaces, since a doubled space would be meaningless.
The cleanups run in a fixed order between the split and the join: trim, drop blanks, remove duplicates, sort. Trim items and Remove blank items are already on, because a pasted column nearly always needs both. De-duplication keeps the first copy of each value and can ignore case if you tick the box next to it. Sorting is numeric-aware, so item2 lands before item10 instead of after. Item prefix and suffix wrap each value; Result prefix and suffix wrap the whole thing once, which is how a raw column becomes ('alice', 'bob') in one pass.
Good to know
- Every value is treated as one flat string. A custom separator is matched literally rather than as a pattern, and a paste covering several spreadsheet columns keeps the tab characters buried inside each item. Once your rows carry more than one field, the CSV tools are the right stop.
Frequently asked questions
How do I turn an Excel column into a comma-separated list?
Select the cells in Excel or Google Sheets, copy, and paste into the Input pane. The defaults already do this job: New line in, Comma out. If the sheet left you a trailing blank row, Remove blank items has dropped it before you noticed.
How do I wrap every value in quotes for a SQL IN list or a JSON array?
Put a quote character in both Item prefix and Item suffix. For SQL, use single quotes and set Result prefix to ( and Result suffix to ), which gives you ('a', 'b', 'c') ready to drop after IN. For JSON, use double quotes with square brackets as the result wrapper instead.
When I remove duplicates, which copy survives?
The first one, in the order you pasted. That matters if your rows are sorted by date and the earliest entry is the one you want to keep. Ticking Ignore case for duplicates makes ACME and Acme count as the same value, and the first spelling is what stays.
Can I split on something that is not in the dropdown?
Pick Custom at the bottom of either dropdown and a text field appears next to it. Whatever you type is used exactly as written, so ], or a bullet with a trailing space both work. Regular expressions do not.
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