Column extractor
Paste a table as text, pick the column number and get that column as a list, one value per line. The delimiter is detected for you, and quoted CSV values with commas inside stay in one piece.
Runs in your browser: nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How to use it
- Paste your table. Rows are lines.
- Leave the delimiter on Auto-detect or choose one.
- Pick the column number (1 is the first column).
- Copy the list. The first row is treated like any other row, so a header row is part of the output.
How it works
For comma, semicolon, tab, pipe and colon the text is read with a CSV parser, so quoted values and escaped quotes work. For “Spaces”, each line is trimmed and split on runs of spaces and tabs. The chosen column of every row is written on its own line.
Worked example
For the sample, auto-detect finds a comma in the header line (2 commas). Column 2 gives “city”, then “Austin, TX” (the quotes keep the comma inside the value), “Boston” and “Chicago”.
Tips
Spaces mode cannot keep values that contain spaces together; use a real delimiter for those. Files saved by European spreadsheet programs often use a semicolon.
Frequently asked questions
How does auto-detect choose the delimiter?
It looks at the first non-empty line and picks whichever of tab, comma, semicolon and pipe appears most often there. If none appears, it splits on runs of spaces. If the guess is wrong, choose the delimiter yourself.
What do quoted values do?
With the quotes option on, text inside double quotes is one value even if it contains the delimiter or a line break, and a doubled quote ("") inside it means one quote character. The surrounding quotes are not in the output. Turn it off for plain splitting.
What if a row has fewer columns?
By default it gives an empty line so the rows stay aligned with your input. Turn on "Skip rows that lack this column" to leave those rows out.
Why only columns 1 to 20?
The column is picked from a list to keep the tool quick to use. For wider tables, cut the text first or convert it with the CSV to JSON tool.