What Is Split Text Tool?
Turn a plain delimiter-separated string into LF-separated items. Matches are literal, case-sensitive and nonoverlapping. Repeated and trailing matches create empty items; their spaces and content stay unless you choose cleanup.
How to Use Split Text Tool
- Paste plain text in Input text. Check that quoted fields do not need CSV parsing.
- Set Delimiter to the exact token, or choose a preset. Comma and Comma + Space match different strings.
- Use Decode backslash escapes only for intentional backslash n, r, t or doubled backslash sequences.
- Read the complete output and retained-item count with cleanup off. Enable Trim items or Drop whitespace-only items only if that information should change.
- Copy the result, or select Output text manually if clipboard access fails. Inspect the actual destination after pasting.
Sample loads the stored comma list, restores comma and clears all three switches. Clear empties Input text but keeps your current settings.
How Split Text Tool Works
The tool consumes exact delimiter occurrences from left to right. It joins the resulting items with LF. Existing line breaks inside an item remain, so retained-item count can differ from the number of physical output lines. Empty input has zero items; an absent or empty delimiter keeps a nonempty source as one item with cleanup off.
Trim changes item edges; Drop removes whitespace-only items and does not trim survivors by itself. Escape decoding runs once, so doubled backslash followed by n stays literal. Regex characters such as dot, star and brackets have no special meaning.
Literal matching is not grapheme segmentation. A valid combining-mark delimiter can separate an accent from its base; a zero-width joiner delimiter can separate a joined sequence. The tool rejects malformed Unicode rather than silently replacing incomplete surrogate units, but does not promise grapheme-aligned splitting.
Split Text Tool Example
Quoted strings below use JSON escape notation to show complete output, including LF, trailing empties and spaces. The copied value is the actual text, not this display notation. Cleanup is off unless stated.
| Input | Delimiter | Complete output | Items |
|---|---|---|---|
"A,,B," | Comma | "A\n\nB\n" | 4 |
"a||b||" | Double pipe | "a\nb\n" | 3 |
"aaa" | aa | "\na" | 2; matches do not overlap |
" A " | Absent comma or No separator | " A " | 1 |
"A\nB,C" | Comma | "A\nB\nC" | 2; output has 3 physical lines |
"\"a,b\",c" | Comma | "\"a\nb\"\nc" | 3; quotes do not protect a comma |
When to Use Split Text Tool
Prepare editable lines from a simple pasted list, inspect repeated or trailing delimiters, or split at a complete custom token. For quoted CSV fields, use a parser that understands its quoting and embedded line-break rules.
| Input and choice | Complete output | What to notice |
|---|---|---|
"A, B,C"; Comma + Space | "A\nB,C" | Only the full comma-space token matches |
"éB"; U+0301 | "e\nB" | The valid accent delimiter changes the source cluster |
| U+1F469 + U+1F3FD + U+200D + U+1F4BB; U+200D delimiter | "👩🏽\n💻" | The valid joiner delimiter separates the sequence |
Common Mistakes
A literal comma splitter is not a CSV parser. RFC 4180 describes quoted fields, embedded commas/newlines and doubled quotes. Use Extract Column for supported CSV parsing rather than assuming this tool understands those rules.
Malformed source or delimiter Unicode, invalid escapes and exceeded budgets produce an editable error, clear output and disable Copy. Input allows 1,000,000 UTF-16 units and 20,000 physical lines; delimiter text allows 1,000 units. Splitting allows 20,000 items and 5,000,000 output units. Items may contain existing line breaks, so the item limit is not a physical output-line limit.
Tips for Better Results
Try an input with a repeated delimiter, a trailing delimiter and edge spaces. Keep cleanup off until you can explain which information will change. If the text was joined using Merge Lines, check for delimiter collisions and remember that Split writes LF rather than restoring original CRLF or CR endings.
Changing source, Delimiter, presets or switches clears old Copy feedback; Sample and Clear also invalidate pending requests. If Copy fails, select the complete result manually. Keep the source and verify the receiving field rather than treating a clipboard message as proof of an import.