Convert a tab-delimited file of transactions to a comma CSV
Some exports of transactions put a tab between columns instead of a comma, often in a file ending in .tsv or .txt. An importer that expects commas then sees one wide column. Choose the file below: the page works in your browser, detects the tab, shows the first 20 cleaned rows and lists every line it left out, with the reason.
Clean your CSV export
The cleaner detects the delimiter (comma, semicolon or tab), looks for a header row with a date column and an amount column, and writes eight fixed columns, comma-delimited: date, description, amount, currency, fee, net, reference and source. It recognises common header names in English, Spanish, German and French, such as Date, Fecha, Buchungstag, Amount, Importe, Betrag and Montant.
Your file is read in your browser and is never uploaded, stored or logged. It is held in the memory of this tab only, and closing or reloading the page discards it. Operator: Augeo. See the privacy notice.
Exports do not share one layout, and this page makes no promise about yours: the free preview shows what it does to your file.
The cleaning logic is checked by an automated test script that runs the engine file of this site over six synthetic sample files and a set of checks of the parsing rules; it ran in a sandbox before this site was published and finished with no failed check. The script does not open this page in a browser, does not test the licence key step, and nothing was tested against a real export from any provider. Use the free preview to check your own file.
Report
Warnings
Lines not parsed
Lines dropped
Preview of the cleaned rows
| line | date | description | amount | currency | fee | net | reference | source |
|---|
Download the full cleaned file
- Price: 6 USD, paid once on Gumroad. No subscription. You receive a licence key.
- What the key unlocks: the download of every cleaned row of the file you chose, as one CSV named after your file with -cleaned.csv at the end, instead of the first 20 rows on screen. The report and the way files are read stay the same.
- The key is for one buyer. Runs are not counted and no number of runs is promised. The key is kept in the memory of this page only, so you enter it again after closing or reloading the page.
- Refunds are requested through your Gumroad receipt and follow Gumroad's refund policy.
- Try the free preview first. If the preview cannot read your file, the full download cannot either.
Get a licence key on Gumroad for 6 USD
How a tab-delimited file is read and written
- The delimiter is taken from the content, not from the file name. The cleaner reads the start of the file (up to 65,536 characters) three times: with a semicolon, with a tab and with a comma as the delimiter. For each it looks at up to 50 non-blank rows and scores how many of them share one width of two or more columns, and how wide that is. The highest score wins.
- On an equal score the tab wins over the comma. A semicolon wins over a tab on an equal score.
- A
sep=line settles it. When the first line issep=followed by a tab character, the tab is used without scoring, and that line is listed as a line above the header. - The report names the delimiter it used in its "Delimiter" line: comma, semicolon or tab. The page has no control to set the delimiter yourself, so read that line.
- Tabs inside a quoted field stay in the field. Only tabs outside double quotes separate columns. Spaces around each value are trimmed.
- The downloaded file is comma-delimited. A value that holds a comma, a double quote or a line break is wrapped in double quotes, and a double quote inside it is doubled. A description such as
Rent, Marchtherefore stays one field. - The text encoding is read from the file. A file that starts with a UTF-16 byte order mark is decoded as UTF-16. Any other file is decoded as UTF-8, and as Windows-1252 when it is not valid UTF-8. The report states the encoding next to the file name.
The file chooser offers files ending in .csv, .tsv and .txt. Spreadsheet files such as .xlsx are not read.
The output is always the same eight columns (date, description, amount, currency, fee, net, reference and source). Dates are rewritten as year-month-day and amounts as plain decimals with a point. Columns of your file that are not among the eight are not carried over, so this is a cleaner for files of transactions and not a general tab-to-comma converter.
In a spreadsheet instead: open a copy of the file, choose Tab as the separator in the import dialog, and save the sheet as CSV.
Notices
- Privacy: files are read in your browser and never uploaded, stored or logged. Operator: Augeo.
- Independent tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by Etsy, PayPal, QuickBooks or any bank.
- Check the output before you use it. This is not accounting, tax or financial advice.
- Price of the full download: 6 USD one-time. The key is for one buyer. Refunds are requested through the Gumroad receipt.
- Only upload data you have the right to process. Choosing a file here does not send it anywhere, but you remain responsible for the data in it.
Other pages
- Convert a semicolon CSV to a comma CSV
- Remove the lines above the header of a CSV
- Remove total and footer lines from a bank CSV
- Convert decimal commas to decimal points in a CSV
- Fix DD/MM and MM/DD dates in a CSV
- Line breaks inside quoted fields of a CSV
- Gross, Fee and Net columns of a PayPal CSV
- Convert CSV dates to YYYY-MM-DD
- Remove duplicate rows from a CSV export
- Negative amounts in parentheses in a CSV
- Fix date and decimal format in a bank CSV
- Merge debit and credit columns into one amount
- Any other CSV export of transactions