FREE WEB TOOL

Check CSV Encoding and Delimiters When Columns Break

Identify encoding and delimiter problems that cause garbled text or broken columns.

Inspect CSV

Files are processed in your browser and are not sent to our server.

How to use it

When CSV opens as mojibake, a single column, or strangely shifted columns, separate two questions first: how the bytes are decoded, and where the columns are split. This tool checks an encoding candidate plus comma/TAB/semicolon/pipe delimiter consistency in one place.

  1. Choose the CSV or text file that is failing to import.
  2. Review the detected encoding and each delimiter candidate’s column count and consistency.
  3. If confidence is weak, compare with the source-system specification or an import preview in the target application.

Garbled characters and “everything in one column” are different failures

Unreadable characters point toward encoding. Readable text that stays in one column points toward the delimiter. Treating them as the same problem makes troubleshooting harder.

Delimiter scoring ignores separators inside quoted cells

The comma in "Tokyo, Japan" is data, not a column boundary. The inspector parses quoted fields before judging row widths, so quoted commas are less likely to create a false comma match.

Consistency is a clue, not a guarantee

A candidate showing three columns at 90% consistency means most sampled rows parse to three fields, but some do not. Those outliers may contain broken quotes or unexpected separators.

Short ASCII-only files may not reveal their encoding

ASCII bytes are compatible with multiple encodings, so a file containing only simple Latin letters/numbers can be impossible to distinguish from content alone. Treat auto-detection as evidence, not a contract.

A practical example

If an export opens entirely in column A, check whether TAB or semicolon produces a consistent multi-column shape. If the Japanese text is also garbled, investigate encoding separately.