Custom delimiter to JSON array
What the custom delimiter to JSON array converter does
Type any separator into the delimiter field, a comma, a double colon, a backslash, a string like ' -> ', and paste your delimited text below it. This app splits on exactly that separator, trims each value, and returns a formatted JSON array. It defaults to a comma if the field's left blank.
It's local. The split runs in your browser, not on a server, so nothing you paste is uploaded and there's no limit on how much text you convert.
Why this exists
When none of the fixed delimiters fit
Every other converter on this site is fixed to one specific character, comma, tab, pipe, colon and so on, because that matches a real, common export format. Real data doesn't always cooperate. Sometimes a system exports something unusual: double colons, a pipe with spaces around it, an arrow built from dashes and a greater-than sign, or a control character written out as visible text.
This app is the escape hatch for that situation, and for the other common case: your data already contains one of the standard delimiters as part of its actual values, a comma inside an address, a pipe inside a note, so you need a rarer separator the export tool chose specifically to avoid that collision.
Workflow
How to convert text with a custom delimiter to JSON in three steps
One extra field compared to the other converters, otherwise identical.
- Step 1
- Type your delimiter into the delimiter field, then paste your delimited text below it.
- Step 2
- Press Convert. The split and trim happen instantly, locally, using exactly the delimiter you typed.
- Step 3
- Copy the JSON array from the output panel.
Why it matters
What breaks when the delimiter still appears inside a value
Whatever delimiter you choose, this app still performs a plain split with no quoting or escaping logic, exactly like every other converter in this family. If the exact string you typed as the delimiter also happens to appear legitimately inside one of your values, it gets split there too, with no way to tell this app that a particular occurrence should be treated as content rather than a boundary.
The only real fix is choosing a delimiter that genuinely never appears in your data. If your source export used a rare, multi-character sequence specifically to avoid this problem, type that exact sequence rather than a single character, and it works the same way.
Behind the field
Why the delimiter field accepts more than one character
A single character isn't always safe enough. Some export formats deliberately use a short, unusual sequence like '::' or '~|~' as their separator, precisely because a two- or three-character sequence is even less likely to occur by accident than any single character. This field accepts any text you type, one character or several, and treats it as a literal string to split on, not a pattern with special meaning of its own.
That means characters that would normally have special meaning in a search pattern, a period, an asterisk, a question mark, are treated as plain, literal characters here rather than interpreted as anything else.
Straight answer
Can I use this to escape a delimiter that appears inside a value?
No, not by itself. This app has no concept of escaping or quoting, so it can't tell the difference between a delimiter meant to separate two fields and the same sequence appearing legitimately inside one field's value.
The practical workaround is picking a different delimiter, ideally one that genuinely doesn't appear anywhere in your actual data, and reprocessing your source with that separator if you have control over how the export was generated.
Who it's for
Who uses a custom delimiter to JSON array converter, and when
Developers dealing with a proprietary export format, one built by an internal tool or an older vendor system with its own separator convention, use it to get that data into JSON without writing a bespoke parser. Anyone whose data already contains commas, pipes or tabs as part of the actual values reaches for it once the fixed-delimiter tools have already failed on that data.
It also works as a general-purpose fallback: when you're not sure which of the other converters applies, typing the exact character you see in your source text here works the same way any of the dedicated tools would.