CSV Cleaner

Why CSVs come out messy

A CSV file looks simple, one row per line, commas between fields, but real exports rarely are. Spreadsheet apps add trailing spaces, export tools leave blank lines at the end, a system that merges two lists leaves the same row twice, and a column that used to hold data sits empty after a field is retired. Import tools then choke: a blank row becomes a nameless record, a duplicate row double-counts a sale, and a stray space means "Riyadh " and "Riyadh" sort as two different cities. Cleaning before import is cheaper than fixing the mess after it lands in your contacts, shop or CRM.

This tool cleans in four passes, in this order: trim, drop blank rows, remove exact duplicates, then optionally drop columns that are empty in every remaining row. The order matters. Trimming first means a row that only looked different because of spaces becomes a true duplicate and gets removed in the next pass. Dropping blank rows before dedupe keeps the duplicate count honest. The header row is set aside before all four passes and put back on top untouched, so a header that happens to match a data row can never eat it.