Can I replace text in only one column?
Yes. Set the scope to one column and only cells in that column are searched and changed.
FIND AND REPLACE
Replace text across a whole CSV or inside a single column. Match case, match the whole cell only, or use a regular expression with capture groups to rearrange values. A live count shows how many matches and cells will change before you press Replace, and Undo is there if the result is wrong.
Loading the CSV tools.
About Find and replace in CSV
How Can You Verify That Your Files Never Leave This Browser?
You do not have to take our word for it. Browser developer tools list every request a page makes, so you can watch 2csv work and confirm that your data is never sent anywhere. The check takes about a minute.
- Open your browser developer tools with
F12, orCmd+Option+Ion a Mac, and select the Network tab. - Reload the page and let it finish. You will see the page's own files (including the background file parser), its web fonts, and one anonymous page-view request. No file has been chosen yet, so none of them can contain your data.
- Click the clear icon in the Network tab so that the log is empty.
- Open a CSV file in the Find and replace in CSV tool above, run it, and download the result.
- Look at the Network tab again. It is still empty. Reading, changing, and saving the file made no request at all. For extra proof, turn on offline mode after the page loads: every tool keeps working.
Your file is read into this tab's memory with the browser's own file reader, parsed and changed by code that is already on the page, and handed back to you as a download. It is never uploaded, never stored in the browser, and gone when you close the tab. The only other request the site can make is the feedback form, and only when you submit it.
The production site also sends a Content-Security-Policy header that tells your browser to refuse connections to anywhere except this site and the anonymous analytics endpoint, so even a bug could not send your data elsewhere.
Which Options Does Find and Replace Have?
- Scope: every column, or one column you choose.
- Match case: treat NY and ny as different.
- Whole cell only: replace only cells whose entire value matches, so N/A is replaced but N/A pending is left alone.
- Regular expression: use a pattern, with $1 and $2 to reuse captured groups in the replacement.
Leaving the replacement empty deletes the matched text. Combined with Whole cell only, that is a quick way to blank out placeholder values such as N/A, null, or a single dash so the cells become truly empty.
How Do Regular Expressions Help?
A regular expression is a pattern that matches text by its shape instead of its exact characters. With capture groups you can rearrange parts of a value: finding (\d+)/(\d+)/(\d{4}) and replacing with $3-$1-$2 turns 03/14/2026 into 2026-03-14. For dates specifically, the column type converter handles many formats for you.
Regular expressions are also useful for removing patterns rather than fixed text: everything in parentheses, a trailing code after a dash, or any run of digits. Test the pattern on one column first and watch the live count of matches and cells before pressing Replace on the whole file.
How Do You Avoid Replacing Too Much?
- Limit the scope to one column whenever you can.
- Read the live count of matches and cells before pressing Replace.
- Turn on Whole cell only for code values such as status or state.
- Use Undo, which keeps the last five changes, if the count was not what you expected.
A replacement in every column is powerful but blunt. Replacing NY with New York across the whole file would also change any cell that happens to contain those letters, which is why the count and the column scope matter.
When Is Another Tool a Better Fit?
Find and replace changes text inside cells. To clean spacing, Trim whitespace handles ends, double spaces, and invisible characters in one pass. To change letter case or turn text into numbers, use the column type converter. To delete whole rows that contain a value, use a filter with Remove rows.
What Else Can You Do With a CSV Here?
- CSV viewer: Open a CSV of any size, scroll every row, and see a profile of each column.
- Sort CSV: Sort rows by one or more columns, as text, numbers, or dates, ascending or descending.
- Filter CSV: Show only the rows that match an expression such as price > 10 AND state = "NY".
- CSV validator: Find ragged rows, broken quotes, bad headers, encoding problems, and values of the wrong type.
- Remove duplicates from CSV: Find and remove duplicate rows, comparing whole rows or only the columns you choose.
- Trim CSV whitespace: Trim leading and trailing spaces, collapse double spaces, and drop invisible characters and empty rows.
- Remove rows from CSV: Delete rows by number or range, the first or last rows, empty rows, or rows that match a rule.
- CSV editor: Edit cells, add or delete rows, and add, delete, rename, or move columns.
- Split CSV column: Split one column into several at a delimiter, such as a full name into first and last.
- Merge CSV columns: Join two or more columns into one with the separator you choose, skipping empty values.
- CSV column type converter: Convert a column to clean numbers, ISO dates, true/false, or upper, lower, or title case.
- CSV to JSON converter: Convert CSV to a JSON array of objects or arrays, or to JSON Lines, with typed values.
- JSON to CSV converter: Convert a JSON array or JSON Lines to CSV, flattening nested objects into dotted column names.
- CSV to SQL converter: Turn a CSV into SQL INSERT statements, with an optional CREATE TABLE, for PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, or SQL Server.
- CSV to TSV converter: Convert a comma-separated file to tab-separated values that paste cleanly into spreadsheets.
- TSV to CSV converter: Convert a tab-separated file to a standard, properly quoted comma-separated CSV.
- CSV splitter: Split a large CSV into smaller files of a set number of rows, with the header repeated in each.
All eighteen tools are on the 2csv home page, and once a file is open you can switch between them without reloading it. Part of the 2suite.io privacy-first ecosystem.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I delete a word from every cell?
Type it in Find and leave Replace with empty. Every match is removed. Check the live count first.
Does it support regex capture groups?
Yes. Turn on Regular expression and use $1, $2, and so on in the replacement to reuse the captured parts.
Can I see how many cells will change?
Yes. A live count shows the number of matches and the number of cells affected before you press Replace.
How do I replace a placeholder like N/A with an empty cell?
Find N/A, leave Replace with empty, and turn on Whole cell only. Cells that hold exactly N/A become empty, while longer text that contains it is left alone.