Are columns zero- or one-indexed?

One-indexed, matching the Unix cut tool: column 1 is the first field, column 2 the second, and so on.

What if a line has fewer columns than requested?

That line produces an empty value in the output. Filter the output afterwards if you want only lines that had the requested column.

Can I use a multi-character delimiter?

Yes. The custom delimiter accepts any string — useful for log formats that separate fields with " | " or " :: ".

Is the input uploaded?

No. Extraction is a local string operation; nothing leaves your browser.

CSV · TSV · custom delimiter

Extract a single column from CSV / TSV

Pick column number, configurable delimiter, optional header skip. The simplest 'cut' for pasted tabular data.

Column Extractor Workspace

Input lines

101 B

Values extracted

header skipped

Column

trimmed

Delimiter

","

literal

input · CSV/TSV

output · column 1

Alice
Bob
Carol
Dave

Quick Start

How to extract a column

Like the Unix cut -d',' -f2 command. Splits each line on the delimiter and emits the chosen column.

01
Paste CSV/TSV
Any delimited table.
Tokenisation is Unicode-aware via \p{L}\p{N} property classes — so accented letters, ideographs, and emoji code points all count correctly.
CSVTSVUTF-8Unicodecode points
input · textraw · UTF-8
```
a,b,c
1,2,3
```
loaded · UTF-8UTF-8 · ready
02
Configure
Delimiter (default comma; use \\t for tab). Column number (1-indexed). Toggle header skip.
Live re-counts run on every keystroke through a memoised reducer, so even multi-megabyte inputs stay smooth in the editor.
1-indexedlivememoisedoptionssnappy
col · options#2 · live
```
b
2
```
options applied · livelive
03
Trim values
Default on — strips whitespace around each value.
Output preserves the original line endings (\n vs \r\n) and trailing whitespace is reported separately so you can spot diff-only changes.
trimline endingswhitespacediff-cleanreproducible
trim · countedon · ready
```
Alice (no padding)
```
counted · livecounted
04
Copy or download
Text or CSV.
Copy writes via the Async Clipboard API; downloads ship as text/plain; charset=utf-8 — nothing leaves your tab.
copyclipboardtext/plainblobclient-side
export · copiedready · done
```
✓ Copied
```
shipped · ready to shipsuccess

Pro tips

Text-processing fundamentals worth knowing

Tokenise with Unicode classes

Use \p{L}\p{N} with the u flag so accents, ideographs, and emoji count properly.

Normalise line endings

Convert \r\n to \n before diffing or hashing — Windows-vs-Unix endings produce phantom changes.

Mind invisible characters

Zero-width joiners, BOMs, and non-breaking spaces look identical to ASCII space. Strip them before comparison or storage.

Stream don’t slurp

For multi-megabyte text, iterate line-by-line rather than loading everything to memory — keeps the tab responsive.

Choose collation deliberately

Default JS sort is code-point order, not human alphabetical. Use Intl.Collator for locale-aware sorting.

Re-run after normalisation

NFC vs NFD changes byte length but not visible glyphs. String.prototype.normalize() before counts and comparisons.

Use Cases

When to extract a column

Anywhere you'd otherwise run cut, awk, or open Excel.

Extract emails from a CSV

Get just the email column out of a contact export. Tokenisation uses Unicode property classes (\p{L}, \p{N}) with the u flag so accents, ideographs, and emoji code points all count correctly. Surrogate-pair-aware counts mean 🚀 weighs 1, not 2.

Unicode-correct

Audit IDs

Pull the ID column for a deduplication or sort. Result updates as you type — paste and watch totals settle in milliseconds even on multi-megabyte inputs. Heavy work runs through a memoised reducer so the editor never janks.

diff-clean

Log triage

Tab-delimited logs — extract timestamps or status codes. Output normalises line endings to LF for clean diffs across platforms. Windows-vs-Unix CRLF mismatches disappear, which keeps git blame honest and review comments focused on real changes.

instant counts

Markdown tables

Use | as delimiter to pull one column from a markdown table. Code-point counts are stable across NFC/NFD normalisation. Pair with the Reading Time Calculator to layer scan-time on top of raw counts, useful for editorial budgets and SEO meta-description limits.

platform-aware

Spreadsheet exports

Copy a column from Sheets, paste here for downstream tooling. All processing runs client-side — paste sensitive or pre-publish copy without it leaving the tab. The clipboard API writes UTF-8 text/plain so it survives transit to any editor or CMS.

code-point-accurate

DB exports

Quick column slice from a SELECT * dump. Same input plus same options always produces identical output, so the tool is safe to embed in CI scripts or doc-generation pipelines without race conditions.

lossless

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Are quoted fields handled?

No — simple split. For CSVs with quoted fields containing commas, use CSV to JSON first.

1- or 0-indexed?

1-indexed for human friendliness.

What about TSV?

Type \t in the delimiter field.

Markdown table?

Use | as delimiter. The first column will likely be empty — set column to 2.

Is anything sent to a server?

No. All processing runs locally.

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