What a CSV cleaner does
A contact list rarely arrives clean. Names carry notes such as a company in brackets. Emails have capitals and stray spaces. The same person appears twice. Sometimes a whole block of names has slipped one row away from its emails, so every person gets a colleague's name. This CSV cleaner finds those problems and fixes the ones that are safe to fix.
It is the same cleaning code the Bossreach Lead Loader uses before it loads contacts into a form, offered on its own as a free page. You do not need an account, and the file never leaves your computer.
How to use the CSV cleaner
Choose a file or paste the text, with a header row on top. The page guesses which column holds the email and which holds the name, and you can change either. Then tick the clean-ups you want. The report updates as you go.
- Split a full name into first and last. It reads Last, First, titles and suffixes.
- Proper-case names, but only when a name is all lowercase or all capitals, so McDonald is left alone.
- Strip notes in brackets from names, and tidy stray whitespace.
- Lowercase and validate every email. A row with no usable email is left out and listed.
- Drop repeated emails, keeping the first row, or keep them all and have them listed.
- Fill a blank name with a placeholder when a form needs one.
Shifted blocks, mismatches and the two downloads
The cleaner compares each name with its email. A name that does not fit its address is flagged. When several rows in a row fit only if each name moves up or down one row, the cleaner shows the block and the new pairings. Nothing moves until you press Realign this block, and you can undo it.
Download the cleaned CSV for the rows that are ready, with the email first, the split name next and your other columns after. Download issues.csv for every flagged row with its reason: a skipped row, a dropped or kept repeat, a mismatch or a possible shifted block. Any cell that starts like a spreadsheet formula gets a leading apostrophe, so opening the file in Excel never runs it.
Limits
The cleaner is rule based. It does not guess an email address that is missing, and it does not check that a mailbox exists. The name-to-email match is a hint, not proof: a nickname or a role mailbox may be flagged or passed over wrongly, so read the issues file before you send. Very large files depend on your browser's memory, and the page asks you to split anything over 25 MB.
Frequently asked questions
Is my CSV uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read and cleaned in your browser, and the two downloads are built there too. Nothing is sent to a server, stored or logged.
How do I remove duplicate emails from a CSV?
Choose the email column and leave the repeat setting on keep the first row. Every later row with the same email, ignoring case and spaces, is dropped and listed in issues.csv with the row it matched.
How does it split a full name into first and last?
It uses the same name splitter as the Lead Loader. It handles Last, First order, titles such as Dr, suffixes such as Jr, and particles such as de la or van, and it returns first and last words when a name has an unusual shape.
What is a shifted block?
It is a run of rows where each name belongs to the email one row above or below. It happens when a list is copied badly. The cleaner shows the block and fixes it only when you press Realign this block.
Does it guess missing email addresses?
Never. A row with a missing or invalid email is left out and listed. The cleaner only reports and repairs what is in your file.