Fixed-Width to CSV

Before CSV became common, many systems wrote tables as fixed-width text: each column occupies the same character positions on every line, padded with spaces. Bank statements, payroll files, mainframe and ERP exports, government data releases and printed reports still use this format. It looks tidy on screen but is useless in a spreadsheet, where each line lands in a single cell. This tool cuts each line at the right positions and gives you a proper table.

Opening the file

Drop a .txt, .dat, .prn or similar file, or paste the text. The encoding is detected, including UTF-16 and older Windows code pages, and tab characters are expanded to the usual 8-character stops, so columns line up exactly as they do in a text editor.

Automatic column breaks

The tool looks for character positions that are blank on (almost) every line. Where a run of shared blanks ends and text begins, it places a column break. For typical reports this finds the columns immediately; the panel title shows how many columns resulted.

Adjusting breaks on the ruler

The first lines of the file are shown in a monospaced ruler with a scale above them, and every break is drawn as a vertical line. Click anywhere in the text to add a break at that position; click on an existing line to remove it. The table below updates at once, so you can see the effect of each change. “Detect again” restores the automatic suggestion.

Typing widths

If you know the record layout, for example from a file specification, type the column widths as a list, such as 10, 21, 12, 10, and apply them. The breaks are placed at the cumulative positions, which is exact and repeatable for files that follow the same layout every month.

Header and title lines

Reports often start with a title, a date or blank lines before the column headers. Use “Skip lines at the top” to ignore them. Switch “First line is a header” on when the first remaining line contains the column names.

Trimming

Fixed-width values are padded with spaces, so trimming is on by default. Switch it off when leading spaces carry meaning, as in some account or indentation-based codes.

Values as written

Numbers keep their formatting, such as 1,204.50 or -88.10, and codes keep their leading zeros. Excel output turns plain numbers and ISO dates into real values while leaving codes as text.

Files that follow a specification

Banks, payroll providers and public agencies usually publish a record layout listing each field’s start position and length. Convert the lengths into the width list, check the first lines on the ruler, and save the widths somewhere: next month’s file will need exactly the same list.

Very long lines

Wide records with hundreds of characters scroll sideways in the ruler. Breaks can be set anywhere along the line; the table preview then shows every resulting column.

Privacy

Bank and payroll files are converted in your browser and never uploaded.

Related tools

For tab-separated text, use TSV to CSV. For tables inside PDF reports, try PDF to CSV. To change the separator of an existing CSV, use Change CSV Delimiter.