What delimiters are supported?

Comma, semicolon, tab, and pipe are available as one-click presets on both the input and output side, and you can also type any single custom character (like `#` or `:`) into the custom field instead.

Why would I need this instead of a dedicated CSV to TSV or CSV to PSV converter?

The dedicated converters cover the most common named formats directly. This tool is for everything else: converting between two arbitrary delimiters, including ones that don't have a common name, in either direction.

Can the input and output delimiter be the same character?

Yes, though the output will be functionally identical to the input (just re-parsed and re-serialized), which can still be useful for normalizing inconsistent quoting.

Does it handle quoted fields containing the delimiter?

Yes, both the parsing and re-serializing steps follow RFC 4180 quoting rules for whichever delimiter you've chosen, so a quoted field can safely contain that delimiter character without breaking the row structure.

What happens if I enter more than one character as a custom delimiter?

The tool requires exactly one character for both the input and output delimiter and shows an error if either field has more or fewer than one character.

Is this the same underlying logic as the named converters (CSV to TSV, CSV to SSV, etc.)?

Yes, all of them share the same RFC 4180-aware grid parser and serializer in this category, just pre-set to specific delimiter pairs; this tool exposes the same machinery with delimiters you choose yourself.

CSV Delimiter Changer - Convert Between Any Delimiters

Overview

Introduction

Not every delimited-text format you'll encounter is comma, tab, semicolon, or pipe, some systems use colons, carets, or other characters entirely. This tool handles the general case: any single-character delimiter in, any single-character delimiter out.

It reuses the same RFC 4180-style quoting engine as this category's named converters (CSV to TSV, CSV to SSV, and so on), just with both delimiter characters exposed as choices instead of hard-coded.

What Is CSV Delimiter Changer?

A general-purpose delimiter converter: choose an input delimiter (comma, semicolon, tab, pipe, or a custom single character) and an output delimiter, and the tool re-parses and re-serializes your data between them.

It's the flexible counterpart to this category's dedicated named converters, useful whenever your source or target format isn't one of the common named ones.

How CSV Delimiter Changer Works

The input text is parsed using the chosen input delimiter with the same RFC 4180-aware state machine used throughout this category, so quoted fields containing that delimiter, newlines, or escaped quotes parse correctly.

The resulting grid of rows and cells is then re-serialized using the chosen output delimiter, quoting any cell that contains the new delimiter, a quote character, or a newline.

When To Use CSV Delimiter Changer

Use it when your source data uses an uncommon delimiter (like a colon or caret) that doesn't have a dedicated named converter on this site.

It's also useful for exploring what a dataset looks like under a different delimiter before committing to one of the dedicated named converters.

Often used alongside CSV to TSV Converter, CSV to SSV Converter and CSV to PSV Converter.

Features

Advantages

Supports any single-character delimiter on both the input and output side, not just the handful of named formats.
Applies the same RFC 4180 quoting rules regardless of which delimiter is chosen, so quoted fields containing the active delimiter still parse and serialize correctly.
Runs entirely client-side, so your data never leaves the browser.

Limitations

Only single-character delimiters are supported; multi-character separators (like `::` or ` | `) aren't handled.
Choosing an input delimiter that doesn't actually match your data's real separator will produce incorrectly split columns without necessarily raising an error, since any single character technically parses as *some* delimiter.

Examples

Converting comma-delimited data to colon-delimited

Input

id,name,active
1,Ada Lovelace,true
2,Alan Turing,false

Output

id:name:active
1:Ada Lovelace:true
2:Alan Turing:false

With input delimiter set to `,` and output delimiter set to a custom `:`, every comma between fields is replaced with a colon.

Best Practices & Notes

Best Practices

Double-check the input delimiter actually matches your data before converting, an incorrect choice will silently produce wrong column splits rather than an error.
For the common named formats (TSV, SSV, PSV), the dedicated converters are slightly faster to use since there's no delimiter to pick.
Use a custom delimiter that doesn't already appear inside your data's own values, to avoid ambiguity in the output.

Developer Notes

Both the input and output delimiter fields are validated to be exactly one character (`.length === 1`) before parsing begins, since the shared `parseCsvGrid`/`stringifyCsvGrid` helpers are designed around a single delimiter character, not a multi-character separator string.

CSV Delimiter Changer Use Cases

Converting a colon- or caret-delimited export into comma CSV for a spreadsheet
Preparing data for a system that expects an uncommon, project-specific delimiter
Experimenting with different delimiter choices before settling on one for a data pipeline

Common Mistakes

Choosing an input delimiter that doesn't match the actual data, which silently produces wrong columns instead of an error.
Entering more than one character in the custom delimiter field, which this tool rejects since the shared parser only supports single-character delimiters.

Tips

If you're not sure what delimiter your data uses, open it in a plain text editor first and look at what separates the values.
For the well-known named formats, the dedicated CSV to TSV/SSV/PSV converters are a quicker path than picking delimiters manually here.

CSV Delimiter Changer