CSV Unescape
Turn an escaped, quoted CSV field back into its plain raw text value.
Example
Input field (one per line) and the unescaped result:
Input: "hello ""world"""
Output: hello "world"
Input: "a,b,c"
Output: a,b,c
The surrounding quotes are stripped, and each doubled quote "" becomes a single ".
How it works
Each input line is treated as one CSV field: leading/trailing whitespace is trimmed, surrounding double quotes are removed, and every doubled quote ("") inside is replaced with a single quote (").
Good to know
CSV Unescape takes a quoted, escaped CSV field and gives you back the plain text value it represents. It does two specific things to every line you paste: it strips a matching pair of surrounding double quotes, and it collapses each doubled quote ("") into a single literal quote ("). It's aimed at developers, data analysts, and anyone who has copied a single column or cell out of a CSV file and ended up with the raw, machine-readable form instead of the readable value.
Reach for it when you're debugging a parser, inspecting an export, or pulling values out of a log or API dump that quoted fields RFC 4180-style. Typical cases: a cell that contained a comma, a newline, or a quote character, which forces a CSV writer to wrap the whole field in quotes and to double-up any internal quotes. Pasting that field here reverses that encoding so you can read or reuse the underlying string.
Reading the result is straightforward, but note the scope: the tool treats each line as exactly one field, not as a row to be split on commas. So a line like "a,b,c" returns a,b,c as a single value rather than three columns. The status line confirms how many fields it processed, and an unquoted line is left mostly intact (no outer quotes are removed, but any internal "" is still collapsed).
A practical tip: only the outermost pair of quotes is removed, and only when the trimmed line both starts and ends with a quote, so don't expect it to handle a row that mixes several comma-separated quoted fields on one line. If you have a full row, split it into one field per line first. Because everything runs locally in your browser, it's also safe for pasting sensitive exports.
Frequently asked questions
Why is each line treated as a single field?
This tool unescapes one CSV field at a time, so it processes each line independently. To unescape every value, paste fields on separate lines.
What happens to an unquoted line?
If a line is not wrapped in surrounding double quotes, nothing is stripped; any doubled quotes inside are still collapsed to single quotes.
Is my data uploaded anywhere?
No — it runs entirely in your browser. Your input never leaves your device and it works offline once loaded.
Is it free?
Yes, completely free with no sign-up and no limits.
People also ask
What is an escaped CSV field?
An escaped CSV field is a value that a CSV writer has wrapped in double quotes because it contains a special character such as a comma, line break, or quote. Any quote characters inside the value are written twice ("") so the parser can tell them apart from the field's surrounding quotes.
Why are double quotes doubled in CSV files?
The CSV format (RFC 4180) uses double quotes to delimit fields, so a literal quote inside a quoted field would otherwise look like the end of that field. Writing it as two quotes ("") signals that it is one real quote character, not a delimiter.
What is the difference between CSV escape and CSV unescape?
CSV escape takes a raw value and adds the surrounding quotes and doubled quotes needed to store it safely in a CSV file. CSV unescape does the reverse: it removes the surrounding quotes and collapses the doubled quotes back into the original plain value.
How do I unescape a whole CSV row with multiple columns?
This tool unescapes one field per line, so it will not split a row on its commas. To handle a full row, put each field on its own line first, then convert; each line is unescaped independently.
Does CSV unescaping handle fields that contain newlines?
A quoted CSV field can legitimately contain a newline, but because this tool processes input one line at a time, a multi-line field would be split across lines and not reassembled. You would need to join such a field onto a single line before unescaping it.
What happens if my field has unbalanced or extra quotes?
The tool only strips quotes when the trimmed line both begins and ends with a double quote; otherwise it leaves the outer text as-is. In all cases it still replaces every internal doubled quote ("") with a single quote.
Is CSV unescaping the same as URL or HTML decoding?
No. CSV unescaping deals specifically with the quote-based escaping rules of the CSV format. URL decoding handles percent-encoded characters and HTML decoding handles entities like ", which are unrelated mechanisms.
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