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# Clean Text

Runs 100% locally

Trim extra spaces and strip out odd characters.

description Using contacts_messy.csv from the upload screen.
Preview: contacts_messy.csv

4,120 rows, 4 columns

check Show hidden characters
· Whitespace ” Smart / special ␣ Control

| name | email | company | notes
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
0 | ·Jane Doe· | jane@acme.io | Acme·Inc. | VIP”
1 | Bob Smith | bob@globex.com∅ | Globex | —␣
2 | Ana López | ana@initech.com | Initech· | follow up
3 | →Wei Chen | WEI@umbrella.co | Umbrella | “key—account”

Options
Preset
excel-hygiene (recommended) minimal paranoid
minimal: trim and collapse whitespace only — no character substitutions.
excel-hygiene: trim, collapse whitespace, fold smart quotes, strip invisible chars, normalize line endings, and normalize accented characters.
paranoid: everything in excel-hygiene plus strip control characters, strip BOM, and normalize accented and look-alike characters (lossy).
Advanced options
check Trim leading/trailing whitespace
check Collapse internal whitespace
check Normalize line endings (\r\n → \n)
check Strip control characters
check Strip BOM
check Fold smart characters (curly quotes, em-dash, NBSP)
check Strip zero-width / invisible characters
check Normalize accented characters (NFC)
Normalize accented and look-alike characters (lossy: ① → 1, ﬁ → fi)

#### Scope

Columns to clean (default: all string columns)
name ✕ email ✕ company ✕ notes ✕
Columns to skip even if they look like text
Choose columns to leave untouched

#### Case conversion

Apply case conversion to selected columns
None

## Results

Cells scanned
16,480
Cells changed
3,947
% changed
24.0%
Columns processed
4
check Show hidden characters (NBSP, ZWSP, smart quotes, control chars…)
Same setting as “Show hidden characters” in the preview above — toggling either updates both.

#### Changes by column

column | cells_changed
--- | ---
company | 1,604
name | 1,210
notes | 982
email | 151

#### Examples (first 25 changes)

Row | Column | Before | After | Ops applied
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
1 | name | ·Jane Doe· | Jane Doe | trim
1 | company | Acme·Inc. | Acme Inc. | fold_smart
1 | notes | VIP” | VIP" | fold_smart
2 | name | Bob··Smith | Bob Smith | collapse_ws
2 | email | bob@globex.com∅ | bob@globex.com | strip_zero_width
2 | notes | —␣ | — | strip_control
3 | company | Initech· | Initech | trim
4 | name | →Wei Chen | Wei Chen | trim
4 | notes | “key—account” | "key-account" | fold_smart, nfc

#### Cleaned preview (first 10 rows)

| name | email | company | notes
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
0 | Jane Doe | jane@acme.io | Acme Inc. | VIP"
1 | Bob Smith | bob@globex.com | Globex | —
2 | Ana López | ana@initech.com | Initech | follow up
3 | Wei Chen | WEI@umbrella.co | Umbrella | "key-account"

Changed cells highlighted. Toggle “Show hidden characters” to inspect the invisibles being removed.

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