How to use the Text Column Formatter
1. Paste delimited text (CSV, TSV, pipe-separated) into the left panel.
2. Set the delimiter character that separates columns in your data.
3. Adjust padding and alignment, then copy the beautifully aligned column output.
What is it?
When you have tabular text data separated by commas, tabs, or pipes, it's hard to read because columns don't line up visually. This tool aligns all columns to their widest entry, separated by pipe characters, giving you neatly formatted table-like output — perfect for README files, documentation, terminal output, and code comments.
The formatter detects the maximum width of each column across all rows and pads every cell to match, ensuring perfect vertical alignment. Left alignment is standard for text data; right alignment works better for numbers. Adjust padding to add breathing room between columns.
Example
Alice,30,New York Bob,25,London Carol,35,Tokyo
Alice | 30 | New York Bob | 25 | London Carol | 35 | Tokyo
Perfect for README tables, terminal output, code comments, and technical documentation.
Benefits
Align pipe-delimited or tab-separated text into readable columns
Uniform column spacing makes structure immediately clear — misaligned text is hard to scan, formatted text is readable at a glance.
Format table data for README files and documentation
Monospace-aligned text tables display correctly in plain text, markdown code blocks, and terminal output.
Prepare plain text reports for fixed-width display systems
Terminals, legacy reporting tools, and printed output require fixed-width column alignment — the formatter produces it exactly.
Verify CSV data looks correct before importing
Align CSV columns to confirm structure and spot misaligned or missing values before loading into a database or tool.
Frequently asked questions
What delimiters are supported?
Any single character or short string can be used as a delimiter: comma (,), tab (\t), pipe (|), semicolon (;), or space. Type the delimiter character in the Delimiter field.
Can I format Markdown tables with this?
The output uses ' | ' as the column separator which is close to Markdown table format, but you'll still need to add the header separator row (| --- | --- |) manually. It's a good starting point for Markdown tables.
What happens to rows with fewer columns than others?
Rows with fewer columns are padded with empty cells to match the maximum column count. This keeps all rows aligned even if they have different numbers of values.