CSV guide

Check a CSV that doesn’t look right

Unwrap can point out common problems with rows, separators, and text encoding.

Check a CSV Your file stays in your browser.

A simple example

This CSV has three columns:

name,city,note
Ada,Berlin,Prefers email
Grace,Paris,Call after 5, please

The last row contains an extra comma. Without quotes around the note, it looks like a fourth column. Values may appear under the wrong headings or the file may fail to open as expected.

Unwrap can flag that some rows have a different number of columns from the header. You still decide how the row should be corrected.

What Unwrap can flag

Check the file settings

Open the Structure view to see the detected separator, quote character, encoding, and line endings. These details can explain why the same CSV looks different in another program.

Line breaks inside quoted text are also shown. They are allowed in CSV and do not always mean the file is broken.

What to do next

1. Check the message in Unwrap. It tells you what kind of problem was found and may include affected row numbers.
2. Go back to the source if you can. Exporting the CSV again is often safer than editing generated data by hand.
3. Open the new file in Unwrap. Confirm that the warning is gone and that the columns now line up.

If you cannot create a new export, use a CSV-aware editor or script. A plain text replacement can also change commas or quotes that are part of the data.

If the warning does not explain the problem

Compare the affected rows in Table with the detected settings in Structure. Quoted line breaks and uncommon separators can be valid CSV, so an unusual detail is not always an error. The first structural check covers the beginning of the file; a problem farther down may need closer inspection in a CSV-aware editor.

Common questions

Can Unwrap tell me which row is broken?

For some structural problems, Unwrap lists row numbers from the part of the file it checked. It may not find every affected row.

Is a semicolon-separated file broken?

No. Many valid CSV files use semicolons or tabs instead of commas. What matters is that the separator is used consistently.

Should I edit the CSV in a text editor?

Only if you understand its quoting and line-break rules. For generated exports, fixing the source or exporting again is usually safer.

Continue exploring

• CSV delimiter detector — check which separator Unwrap found
• CSV viewer — see how the rows and columns were read
• CSV vs Excel — choose the right tool for the next step