Broken CSV Checker: Guide
- Intent
- Broken CSV checker online: find rows with missing or extra columns compared to the first row (often the header) to fix CSV import errors quickly.
- What it does
- Splits each line on commas and reports the line numbers whose column count differs from the first line.
- Key features
- Line number report, Expected column count, Fast scan
- Privacy
- Everything runs locally in your browser. No uploads.
- Best for
- Debugging 'CSV format broken' errors during imports or ETL pipelines
- Finding the exact line that breaks parsing due to stray commas or quotes
- Anyone searching 'broken CSV checker' or 'CSV parse error'
- Why this tool
- Pinpoints which lines differ from the header's column count
- Works from pasted CSV text so you can test small samples quickly
- Local-only: no uploads
How to use
- 1Paste your CSV text (include the header line).
- 2Click Check for broken rows.
- 3If broken rows are found, use the line numbers to fix the source CSV.
Common mistakes
- This is a lightweight checker: quoted commas and multi-line fields can produce false positives.
- Assumes commas, not semicolons/tabs/pipes.
- If the first row is not the true 'standard' row, the expected column count will be wrong.
Examples
Detect a row with an extra comma
Header: id,name
Row 2: 1,Alice
Row 3: 2,"Bob, Jr" <-- quoted comma (can look 'broken' to simple split)
Tool may flag line 3 as broken.
Find missing columns
Header: id,name,age
Row: 3,Charlie
Expected: 3 columns -> broken row