Find and replace text in a CSV or Excel column
One wrong label repeated across ten thousand rows is not a typing job. Upload the file, say what to look for and what to put in its place, and download the corrected copy.
Replace text in a fileWhat this is for
Replacement works on one column at a time and rewrites every occurrence it finds. That makes it the tool for problems that are mechanical rather than judgemental.
- Normalising a category that arrived in several spellings, so that grouping and counting return one row instead of four.
- Stripping a currency symbol or a thousands separator so a column can be read as a number.
- Correcting a supplier name, a product code prefix or a country label that was wrong at the source.
- Swapping a placeholder that an export tool wrote into every empty field.
How the match behaves
Plain text, not a pattern
The text you enter is searched for literally. A dot is a dot and a bracket is a bracket, so nothing needs escaping and no pattern syntax can misfire on the data by accident.
Every occurrence, one column
All occurrences inside each cell are replaced, and the change is limited to the column you select. Other columns that happen to contain the same text are left untouched.
An empty replacement deletes
Leaving the replacement empty removes the matched text from the values. This is the usual way to drop a symbol or a prefix rather than exchange it for something else.
Questions
Is the search a plain text match or a pattern?
It is a plain text match. The text you enter is looked for literally, so characters such as a dot or a bracket mean themselves and no pattern syntax needs escaping.
Does it replace every occurrence in a cell?
Yes. Every occurrence inside every cell of the selected column is replaced, not only the first one in each cell.
Can text be removed rather than replaced?
Yes. Leave the replacement empty and the matched text is deleted from the values, which is the usual way to strip a currency symbol or a stray prefix.