Add Commas Tool

The tool chooses how to split your text based on whether it contains line breaks:

• If the text contains a newline, each line is one item. Lines are trimmed of leading and trailing spaces, and empty lines are dropped. So "New York" on one line stays "New York".
• If the text is a single line, it is split on any run of whitespace (spaces or tabs), so every word becomes an item.

The items are then joined with a comma and a space:

output = items.join(', ')

Why the two modes. Splitting on every space would turn "New York" into "New, York". Column data copied from Excel or Google Sheets arrives one value per line, so line mode is the common case and keeps multi-word values intact. A single line of words, such as tags typed in a chat, is still split word by word.

Blank and spaced lines. Empty lines and lines containing only spaces are skipped, so a column with gaps produces no empty items or double commas. A trailing newline at the end of a pasted column is also ignored.

Existing commas are not removed. If an item already contains a comma, such as "Lahore, Punjab", it stays inside that item and the output will be ambiguous for CSV. Wrap such items in double quotes, or replace the comma before joining.

Separator is fixed. The join string is always ", " (comma plus space). For a semicolon-separated list for European Excel, or comma without a space for some APIs, run a find-and-replace on the result.

Common destinations:

• SQL: WHERE id IN (1001, 1002, 1003, 1004). Numbers work as-is; text values need quotes.
• Email: most clients accept addresses separated by ", " in the To field.
• Tags and keywords: CMS keyword fields and YouTube tags take comma-separated values.
• Spreadsheet formulas: a quick list for an array constant like {1001, 1002, 1003}.
• Human-readable lists: "apples, bananas, cherries" for a sentence. Add "and" before the last item yourself if you want an Oxford-comma style list.

Reversing it. To go from comma-separated back to one item per line, use a find-and-replace of ", " with a newline in any text editor.

Large lists. Thousands of items join instantly. Many destinations have their own limits, though: SQL Server allows about 2,100 parameters in an IN list, and Oracle caps literal IN lists at 1,000 items, so split long ID lists into chunks.

Words on one line

Inputs: apple banana cherry

Paste the single line and press the button. There are no newlines, so the text is split on spaces into three items and joined with ", ".

Result: apple, banana, cherry

Word mode: every space starts a new item.

Spreadsheet column of IDs

Inputs: 1001 / 1002 / 1003 / 1004, one per line

Copy four cells from a spreadsheet column and paste. The text contains newlines, so each line becomes one item.

Result: 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004

Ready for WHERE id IN (1001, 1002, 1003, 1004).

Multi-word city names

Inputs: New York / Lahore / San Francisco, one per line with a trailing newline

Paste three cities on separate lines. Line mode keeps New York and San Francisco together, and the empty last line is dropped.

Result: New York, Lahore, San Francisco

On a single line these would split into five items.

Why did "New York" become "New, York"?

Your text was on a single line, so it was split on spaces. Put each item on its own line and multi-word items stay together.

Are empty lines turned into empty items?

No. Blank lines and lines with only spaces are skipped.

Can I use a different separator?

The tool always uses ", ". Use find-and-replace on the output for semicolons, pipes or commas without spaces.

How do I add quotes around each item?

Run Add Prefix and Add Suffix with a quote character on the one-per-line list first, then join with this tool.

Does it remove duplicates?

No. Remove duplicate lines first if your list may contain repeats.

Is there a size limit?

No fixed limit in the tool. Destinations such as databases and email clients may have their own limits.