Split a List into Items

The Split a List into Items tool transforms text containing multiple items per line into organized, individual list items with customizable separation methods and formatting options. This online list splitting tool lets you break apart comma-separated values, whitespace-delimited text, or custom-separated content into clean individual items with sorting, deduplication, and multiple output formats. Just paste your consolidated text and instantly generate properly separated lists with filtering and formatting controls.

How to Use:

Input Your Text

• Paste or type your text containing multiple items per line into the input box
• Use the Import button to load CSV files, tab-delimited data, or other text files
• The tool accepts various formats including comma-separated, tab-delimited, and custom-separated content

Configure Basic Settings

• Toggle “Skip empty items” to exclude blank entries from the split results
• Enable “Trim whitespace” to clean up extra spaces around each split item
• Turn on “Remove duplicates” to eliminate repeated items from the final output
• Activate “Sort items” to alphabetically organize the split items

Set Separation Parameters

• Enter “Custom separator” to specify exactly how items should be split (comma, semicolon, pipe, etc.)
• Set “Min length” to filter out items shorter than specified character count
• Configure “Max length” to exclude items longer than the specified limit

Choose Split Method

• Select “By separator” to split using commas or your custom separator character
• Pick “By whitespace” to separate items at spaces, tabs, or line breaks
• Choose “By lines” to treat each line as a separate item
• Use “By characters” to split text into individual character items

Select Output Format

• Choose “One per line” for standard list formatting with each item on its own line
• Pick “Numbered list” to add sequential numbers before each item
• Select “Bullet points” to create bulleted list formatting
• Use “Comma separated” to rejoin items with clean comma formatting

Configure Advanced Options

• Set “Items per line” to group multiple items together on each output line
• Adjust “Start number” to begin numbered lists at a specific value
• Enter “Filter contains” to include only items containing specific text

Generate and Export

• Click “Split” to apply your settings and see the separated items instantly
• Use “Copy” to grab the split content for pasting into your project
• Export your results as a text file for further processing or import into other applications

What Split a List into Items can do:

This Split a List into Items tool makes it incredibly easy to transform messy, consolidated text into clean, organized individual items. You can take comma-separated values from spreadsheet exports, tab-delimited data from databases, or any text with multiple items per line and instantly break it into manageable, individual entries.

The automatic separator detection is brilliant for handling mixed data formats. If your text contains tabs, the tool prioritizes tab separation. For pipe-delimited data, it detects and uses pipe characters. When commas are present, it defaults to comma separation, making it work seamlessly with CSV exports and similar data formats.

Smart Data Filtering and Organization:

Advanced filtering options let you clean up data during the splitting process. Remove items that are too short to be meaningful, filter out overly long entries that might be errors, or extract only items containing specific keywords or phrases.

The deduplication feature eliminates repeated entries automatically, which is perfect for cleaning up data exports where the same item appears multiple times across different lines or sections. Combined with sorting, this creates clean, alphabetized lists without manual cleanup.

Flexible Output Formatting:

Output formatting adapts to different use cases seamlessly. One per line works perfectly for simple lists and data import scenarios. Numbered lists create organized reference materials, while bullet points generate presentation-ready content. Comma separated formatting creates clean, space-efficient text.

The items per line control lets you regroup split items in different arrangements, perfect for creating columns, organizing related items together, or preparing data for specific import formats that expect multiple items per line.

Professional Data Management:

Whether you’re processing CSV exports from databases where multiple values are stored in single fields, cleaning up user-generated content where people entered multiple items in single form fields, converting spreadsheet data into list formats for documentation or presentations, or preparing data for import into systems that require one item per line, this tool handles the splitting intelligently.

The length filtering is particularly valuable for data cleaning scenarios where you need to remove obviously incorrect entries, empty fields, or excessively long text that doesn’t belong in the dataset. Content managers particularly appreciate the filtering capabilities for processing large datasets where only specific items matching certain criteria need to be extracted and organized into clean lists for further use.

Example:

Before (Consolidated Text):

apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, strawberries
bread, milk, eggs, cheese, butter
notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers, rulers

After (Split Items, One Per Line):

apples
bananas
oranges
grapes
strawberries
bread
milk
eggs
cheese
butter
notebooks
pens
pencils
erasers
rulers

Split a List into Items Table:

This table demonstrates different splitting methods and output formats for various data processing scenarios.

Common Use Cases:

The Split a List into Items tool gets regular use for processing CSV exports and database dumps where multiple values are stored in single fields and need individual separation, cleaning up user-generated content from forms where people entered multiple items in single text fields, and converting spreadsheet data into proper list formats for documentation, presentations, or import into other systems. Data analysts use it to break apart concatenated field values for proper data analysis, while content managers rely on it for organizing imported content that arrives in consolidated formats. The tool also handles specialized applications like processing survey responses where participants listed multiple items in single answer fields, converting product catalogs with multiple attributes per line into individual product features, and preparing data for systems that require one item per line format for proper import and processing.