Zerdly

Survey CSV Cleaner

Cleans survey CSV and TSV files without losing structure: quoted commas and line breaks stay inside their fields, IDs and decimal strings are preserved, and every opt-in cleanup is previewed field by field before you download.

100% FreeRuns in your browserBasic
How to use this calculator

Input and cleanups

Every cleanup is off until you tick it. With nothing ticked the output is the parsed input, field for field.

Paste, or open a local file — it is read in this browser and never uploaded. Limits: 10 MiB, 100,000 records, 200 fields per record and 100,000 characters per field. Nothing is ever truncated — a file over a limit is refused with the reason.

Whitespace (opt-in)

Line breaks inside a cell are never removed.

Records (opt-in)

Identical means every parsed field is the same string — 100.0 and 100.00 are different.

Paste or open a file and press Clean and preview.

The change preview and removed-record table appear before any download.

One logical record can span lines
Illustrative
One logical record can span linesFour physical lines of a CSV file hold three logical records. The quoted note on record 2 contains a line break, so it continues onto line 3 inside the same cell. The comma inside the quotes on line 4 is text, not a delimiter. The ID 0007 and the decimal 123.4500 are kept exactly as typed.line1234ID,Easting,Northing,Note0007,123.4500,456.78,"two spacesnext line"0008,100.0,200.10,"kerb, east side"← same record4 physical lines · 3 logical records · 4 fields each
Lines 2 and 3 are one record: the quoted line break stays inside the Note cell. A comma inside quotation marks is not a delimiter. 0007 keeps its leading zeros and 123.4500 keeps its decimal places.

Before you rely on this: First-pass guide only. Verify safety-critical or regulated work against the relevant standards, your project requirements and a qualified professional.

How to use this calculator

  1. Paste the CSV or TSV, or open the file from your device. Check the detected delimiter and say whether the first record is a header.
  2. Tick only the cleanups you want: trim or collapse spaces (unquoted fields only, or all fields), remove blank records, and remove identical records or check a chosen ID column.
  3. Press Clean and preview. Read the count ledger, the changed-field table (before and after) and the removed-record table, then download the cleaned CSV, a separately labelled spreadsheet-safe copy, the untouched original or the change log.

How it works

The file is parsed with an RFC 4180 state machine: a comma inside quotation marks is text, a doubled quote is one quote, and a quoted line break stays inside its field. One logical record can therefore span several physical lines, and the ledger counts both.

Nothing is cleaned by default. With no option ticked, the output is the parsed input field for field: 0007 stays 0007, 123.4500 keeps its four decimals and "two spaces" keeps both spaces. Values are never converted to numbers.

Whitespace cleanups touch spaces and tabs only, never line breaks, and by default leave quoted fields alone. Identical-record removal compares every parsed field as a string, so 100.0 and 100.00 are different records.

In ID mode, records that share an ID and are identical are duplicates; records that share an ID but differ are conflicts. Conflicts are kept and reported unless you explicitly choose to keep the first or the last, and every removal is listed with its reason.

A malformed quote (an unclosed quoted field, or text after a closing quote) stops the run with the record, line and column — the tool never returns a tidy-looking corrupted file. The spreadsheet-safe export prefixes formula-like text (starting with =, +, - or @ and not a plain number) with an apostrophe; that changes those fields, so it is a separate download.

Worked example

A quoted note and a quoted comma. The file ID,Easting,Northing,Note / 0007,123.4500,456.7800,"two spaces⏎next line" / 0008,100.0,200.10,"kerb, east side" is 4 physical lines but 3 logical records (1 header + 2 data), 4 fields each. With the default settings nothing changes and the download is byte-for-byte the same. Ticking trim and collapse still changes nothing, because the note is quoted; switching the scope to all fields changes exactly one field — "two spaces⏎next line" becomes "two spaces⏎next line" — and the preview lists it.

Frequently asked questions

Will precision or zeroes change?

No. Cells are kept as the text you supplied, so leading zeros in IDs and trailing zeros in coordinates survive. Only an option you tick can change a field, and every changed field is listed before you download.

What counts as duplicate?

An identical record means every parsed field matches exactly. In ID mode, the same ID with identical fields is a duplicate; the same ID with different coordinates or notes is a conflict, which is kept and reported unless you choose otherwise.

Why offer spreadsheet-safe export?

A spreadsheet can run text that starts with =, +, - or @ as a formula. The spreadsheet-safe copy adds an apostrophe in front of those fields so they open as text. It changes their content, so use the normal cleaned CSV for survey software.

Is this official course material?

No. It is free study support mapped to surveying course levels — not official North Metropolitan TAFE content or advice. Always follow your lecturer and the official assessment brief, and check your own working.

Related tools

Explore more in Surveying, Coordinates, GIS & CAD.

Cite this tool

Zerdly. (2026). Survey CSV Cleaner. Retrieved from https://www.zerdly.com/tools/survey-csv-cleaner/

Tip: Enter any known values to calculate the remaining results.

Designed to run locally in your browser. Tool inputs are not intentionally stored by Zerdly unless stated otherwise.