Validate

Repair CSV files with broken column counts, stray separators, and misaligned rows

Scan for ragged rows where unescaped commas or semicolons broke table alignment.

🛡️ Your rows never leave your browser.
Why Onfyt: Provides automated heuristic merging that collapses extra columns back into the intended text field based on expected column schema.

Interactive Sample Data

idcustomernotesamount
1Acme CorpStandard account1200
2Beta LLCDelayed shipment, awaiting approval450
3Gamma IncNotes with comma, part two890

How this tool works

The most common structural defect in CSV files is the unescaped delimiter. When an application exports a text field containing a comma—such as 'San Francisco, CA' or a free-form customer comment—without wrapping that field in double quotes, standard CSV parsers interpret that comma as a column separator. As a result, the row splits into too many columns, misaligning all subsequent fields and corrupting numeric totals. A second frequent problem occurs when European regional settings export spreadsheets with semicolon delimiters (;) because commas are used as decimal points. When opened in North American or international software expecting standard commas, the entire row is treated as a single massive string. DataFix performs statistical delimiter sniffing and structural validation on every row. It tallies the expected column count established by the header, isolates all 'ragged' rows that contain unexpected extra or missing tokens, and gives you automated repair strategies: merging surplus columns back into the preceding text field or converting alternate separators into compliant RFC 4180 commas.

Things that usually go wrong

  • Files with a BOM may confuse auto-detection — remove the BOM first.
  • Files with only one column (no delimiter) may not have enough evidence for confident detection.

Edge cases we tested

🧪 Mixed delimiters within the same file (commas and semicolons)

Detected by frequency histogram and converted to a single canonical delimiter.

🧪 Trailing delimiter at line ends ('1,Acme,100,')

Recognized as empty trailing field or stripped depending on user configuration.

🧪 Rows with fewer columns than header

Padded with empty cells to ensure rectangular table geometry.

Frequently Asked Questions

What delimiters can be auto-detected?

Comma, semicolon, tab, pipe (|), colon, and space.

What inconsistencies are fixed?

Mixed delimiters within a file, inconsistent column counts per row, and incorrect quoting.

What happens if two rows have different column counts?

Short rows are padded with empty values and long rows are truncated to match the most common column count. Both are flagged in the fix report.

Can the tool handle files where some rows use commas and others use semicolons?

Yes — mixed-delimiter files are detected. The most common delimiter wins and outlier rows are fixed to match.

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