Cells to Commas Action for Mac

Overview

What Cells to Commas does

Converts cells from Google Sheets, Excel, or other tab-separated text to CSV. Separates columns with commas and keeps each spreadsheet row on its own line, preserving empty cells within the data and blank rows. Omits completely empty trailing columns. Quotes values containing commas, quotes, or line breaks. Copy the result or use Add to note.

Category	Text Editing & Formatting
Action type	JavaScript
Default result	Copy the result
Internet	Not required

Example

Action and outcome

Cells to Commas example
Action	Outcome
Cells to CommasSelected text: Apple Banana Pear Orange	Apple,Banana Pear,Orange

Workflow

Use Cells to Commas

Follow these steps to convert selected spreadsheet cells to CSV, keeping rows and columns with ActionClip.

Select the text you want to use.
Choose Cells to Commas from ActionClip.
Review the extracted result, then copy it where you need it.

Before you add it

Requirements and privacy

Before you start: No setup required.
Your selected text: Runs locally in ActionClip’s JavaScript sandbox. Selected text does not leave your Mac.

Inspect before installing

Action script

The script below is included so you can inspect how the action works before downloading it.

JavaScript definition

function run(selected_text) {
  const rows = [];
  let row = [];
  let cell = "";
  let quoted = false;
  let closedQuote = false;
  let atStart = true;
  const isSeparator = (character) => /[\t\r\n\u000B\u000C\u0085\u2028\u2029]/.test(character);
  const finishCell = () => {
    row.push(cell);
    cell = "";
    closedQuote = false;
    atStart = true;
  };

  for (let index = 0; index < selected_text.length; index += 1) {
    const character = selected_text[index];
    if (quoted) {
      if (character === '"') {
        if (selected_text[index + 1] === '"') {
          cell += '"';
          index += 1;
        } else {
          quoted = false;
          closedQuote = true;
        }
      } else {
        cell += character;
      }
    } else if (isSeparator(character)) {
      finishCell();
      if (character !== "\t") {
        rows.push(row);
        row = [];
      }
      if (character === "\r" && selected_text[index + 1] === "\n") index += 1;
    } else if (closedQuote) {
      throw new Error("Invalid quoted cell. Copy the cell range again and retry.");
    } else if (atStart && character === '"') {
      quoted = true;
      atStart = false;
    } else {
      cell += character;
      atStart = false;
    }
  }
  if (quoted) throw new Error("Incomplete quoted cell. Copy the cell range again and retry.");
  finishCell();

  rows.push(row);
  // Drop only columns that are empty in every selected row.
  let width = rows.reduce((maximum, values) => Math.max(maximum, values.length), 0);
  while (width > 0 && rows.every((values) => (values[width - 1] || "") === "")) width -= 1;
  return rows.map((values) => values.slice(0, width).map((value) =>
    /[,"\t\r\n\u000B\u000C\u0085\u2028\u2029]/.test(value) || value !== value.trim()
      ? '"' + value.replace(/"/g, '""') + '"'
      : value
  ).join(",")).join("\n");
}