Remove Special Characters

How to use Remove Special Characters

1. Enter text in Input text, or choose Upload to load a text, CSV, log, or Markdown file.
2. Keep or clear Keep spaces, Keep newlines, and Keep numbers.
3. Enter characters in Also keep these characters, separating entries with commas.
4. Review the filtered text in Output text.
5. Choose Copy or Download when Output text contains text.

What Remove Special Characters keeps

Letters and combining marks always remain in the output. Keep numbers controls Unicode numbers. Keep spaces controls ordinary spaces and tab characters, while Keep newlines controls carriage returns and line breaks. With the default settings, this input becomes:

hello@#world!
helloworld

The at sign, number sign, and exclamation mark disappear because they are not selected. If every input character is removed, Output text is empty and Copy and Download stay unavailable.

How to strip special characters while keeping symbols

Use Also keep these characters for marks that should stay in the result. The field is split at commas, and each character in the remaining entries is added to the keep list. For example, with Keep numbers and Keep spaces selected, entering a hyphen keeps the separator:

SKU: A-42
SKU A42

Also keep these characters: -
SKU A-42

Enter several characters as comma-separated entries, such as -,_. The comma separates entries; it is not added to the keep list. The output updates as you change the controls.

What the text filter leaves unchanged

The filter checks each character. It does not remove whole words or treat punctuation as a larger token. Accented letters stay because they are letters or combining marks. Use the separate tool for accents and diacritics when those are the characters you want to change.

Where this comes up

For a label such as SKU: A-42, keep numbers and spaces, then add the hyphen in Also keep these characters if the identifier needs it.

For a pasted list with one item per line, leave Keep newlines selected while the other characters are filtered.

For text with tabs between fields, leave Keep spaces selected so the tabs remain in Output text.

When to choose another text cleanup tool

Use Text Cleanup & Filter Tools for a different cleanup task. Choose Remove Punctuation for punctuation-specific options such as keeping apostrophes, hyphens, decimal points, or custom marks. Choose Remove Accents / Diacritics when accented letters are the characters you want to change. Choose Remove Non-Printable Characters when you need to remove non-printable characters with controls for tabs or newlines.

Frequently asked questions