Character Remover
Remove characters from any text. Type the exact characters to strip, or pick a class (digits, punctuation, whitespace, letters, symbols, non-ASCII). Useful for cleaning CSV exports, normalizing copy-pasted text, stripping smart quotes, removing tracking codes, and prepping data for parsing.
How to use the character remover
1. Paste your input
Drop any text into the input box. CSV exports, copy-pasted documents with smart quotes, tracking codes, messy phone-number lists, data dumps with weird symbols. The output panel updates on every keystroke.
2. Choose what to remove
Two ways. (a) Type the literal characters to strip into the "Specific characters" box. "abc,." will strip every a, b, c, comma, and period. (b) Toggle the character-class checkboxes in the sidebar: digits, punctuation, whitespace, letters, symbols, non-ASCII. Mix both.
3. Copy out
The Copy button puts the cleaned output on your clipboard. Paste into your CSV importer, your text editor, or wherever you needed the cleaned version. The "Clear input" button resets the input box to empty.
When you need to remove characters
CSV cleanup before import
Excel exports often include extra characters: byte-order marks, smart quotes (curly quotes ""), trailing whitespace, em-dashes embedded in text fields. Strip them before re-importing. See also: remove line breaks. See also: remove HTML tags.
Smart-quote normalization
Word documents and Mac apps replace straight quotes (") with curly quotes ("). Code editors hate curly quotes. Use this tool to strip them or replace with straight ASCII.
Phone-number normalization
Phone numbers arrive in 50 formats: (555) 123-4567, 555.123.4567, +1-555-123-4567. Toggle "Punctuation" and "Whitespace" to strip everything except digits, and you get 5551234567 for clean DB storage.
Email-list cleanup
Pasted email lists sometimes include name strings, parentheses, commas: "John Smith <john@example.com>, Jane Doe <jane@example.com>". Toggle "Symbols" and the right specific characters to strip down to clean comma-separated emails.
Stripping ANSI color codes
Terminal output captured to a file often includes ANSI escape codes (\x1b[31mRed text\x1b[0m). Toggle "Non-ASCII" combined with specific escape characters to strip the codes and keep the readable text.
Tag and hashtag cleanup
If you have a list of hashtags with #-prefixes and want bare keywords, type "#" into the "Specific characters" field. Done.
Number-only or letter-only extracts
Toggle "Letters" to keep only digits, or "Digits" to keep only letters. Useful for extracting numbers from product codes, phone-spam stripping, or pulling letters from license plates.
Character classes the tool understands
| Class | What's in it | Example chars stripped |
|---|---|---|
| Digits | 0-9 | 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 0 |
| Punctuation | . , ! ? ; : ' " ` ( ) [ ] { } < > / \ | ~ _ ^ @ # $ % & * + = -, plus curly quotes ' ' " " | periods, commas, brackets, slashes, dashes, smart quotes |
| Whitespace | spaces, tabs, line breaks, vertical tabs | " ", \t, \n, \r |
| Letters | a-z A-Z | a, B, M, z |
| Symbols | @ # $ % ^ & * + = ~ ` < > | \ / | @, #, %, &, * |
| Non-ASCII | any character with codepoint > 127 | é, ñ, 你, 🚀, ★ |
You can combine multiple classes. Toggle "Digits" + "Punctuation" to keep only letters and whitespace. Toggle "Whitespace" + "Non-ASCII" to keep clean ASCII with no spaces.
Specific-characters input rules
The "Specific characters" input is case-insensitive. Type "a" to strip every "a" and "A". Type "abc,." to strip every a, b, c, A, B, C, comma, and period. The string is treated as a set of characters, not a substring - order doesn't matter.
Tips:
- To strip Unicode characters, paste them literally into the box. "é" in the box strips every é from the input.
- The class toggles run alongside the specific-character box. You can use both at once.
- Whitespace inside the box counts as a request to strip whitespace; just toggle the "Whitespace" class checkbox instead for clarity.
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Frequently asked questions
What characters does the tool strip?
Either characters you type into the 'Specific characters' box (literal chars, case-insensitive) or characters from class toggles (digits, punctuation, whitespace, letters, symbols, non-ASCII). You can combine both.
Is the matching case-sensitive?
No. Typing 'a' into the specific-characters box strips both 'a' and 'A'. Class toggles for 'Letters' strip both cases by definition.
How do I strip smart quotes (curly quotes)?
Toggle the 'Punctuation' class - smart quotes are included. Or paste the specific curly characters into the box: ' ' " ".
Can I strip emoji and CJK characters?
Yes. Toggle the 'Non-ASCII' class. This strips every character with a codepoint above 127 (emoji, accented Latin, CJK, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, all Unicode beyond basic ASCII).
How do I keep only the digits in a string?
Toggle every class except 'Digits' (or just toggle 'Letters' + 'Punctuation' + 'Whitespace' + 'Symbols' + 'Non-ASCII'). Result: only digits remain.
Does the tool support regex?
Not in this tool. For regex-based removal, use a code editor with regex find-and-replace. The character remover is intentionally simple and click-driven.
Will my text be sent to a server?
No. The character remover runs entirely in your browser. Pasted text stays in this tab.
Can I remove specific words or phrases?
No - this tool removes characters, not words. For word-level removal, see the duplicate-word remover or use find-and-replace in your text editor.
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