Transpose CSV

Some tables are simply the wrong way round for the next step. A budget lists categories down the side and months across the top, but your chart tool wants months as rows. A survey export puts each respondent in a column. An import template expects fields as columns while your source lists them as rows. Transposing flips the table on its diagonal, and this tool does it for files of any size in your browser.

What transposing does

Every row becomes a column and every column becomes a row. The cell in row 3, column 5 moves to row 5, column 3. The first row, often the header, becomes the first column, so the old column names turn into row labels. That is usually exactly what you want, and it is why the tool flips the whole table rather than treating the header separately.

Getting data in

Drop a CSV, TSV, TXT or Excel file, or paste cells copied from Excel or Google Sheets; pasted cells arrive tab-separated and are recognized automatically. For workbooks, choose the sheet to flip.

Uneven rows

Real CSV files are not always rectangular. A row may have fewer fields than the header, for example when trailing empty cells were not written. Such gaps are filled with empty cells before flipping, so every value lands in its correct place and nothing shifts.

Size limits

Transposing a long file creates a very wide one. Excel can hold 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows per sheet. If the result exceeds either, the tool warns you; save it as CSV, which has no such limit, or transpose a smaller part. Most other programs also handle very wide tables poorly, so check whether the destination really needs the flipped layout.

Values stay exactly as they are

Every cell is moved as text without interpretation. Numbers with leading zeros, long IDs and dates in local formats are copied unchanged. When you save as Excel, plain numbers become numeric cells while codes such as 007 stay text.

Typical uses

Preparing data for chart tools that want series in rows, reshaping survey or form exports, matching a template that lists fields as columns, turning a comparison table on its side for a slide, or checking a wide export more easily as a long list.

Saving

Download the flipped table as CSV, Excel or TSV. The preview shows the first rows of the result with row numbers, so you can confirm the orientation before saving.

Checking the result

After flipping, the preview’s first column shows what used to be the header row. If your data had a header and you plan to keep working with the flipped table, that column now holds the labels, and the first row holds what used to be the first column, often an ID or a date. Make sure the destination expects this layout before importing.

Flipping only part of a table

To transpose a block inside a larger sheet, copy just that block in your spreadsheet, paste it into the paste box here, and copy the result back.

Related tools

To summarize long data into a compact table, use the CSV Pivot Table. To reorder or drop columns without flipping, try Edit CSV Columns. For editing with formulas, the Online Spreadsheet opens CSV and Excel files.