How to pull data out of text
- Paste the text in the box, or drop a text or CSV file on it. Anything works: an email thread, a WhatsApp export, a log, a ticket dump.
- Choose what to find. The counters show how many matches there were, how many are listed and how many were left out.
- Choose how to copy it: one per line, comma separated, or a CSV with a count for each value.
- Copy the result or save it as a file.
It saves the hour of scrolling through a long thread to copy addresses one at a time, and it gives you a list you can paste straight into a mail merge, a CRM import or a spreadsheet. Run the result through the duplicates finder if you merge several exports, or the list comparison to see who is on one list and not the other.
Email addresses
An address needs a name, an @ sign and a domain with a real ending, such as name@yourcompany.com. The domain is written in lower case. The name before the @ is kept exactly as it was written, and two addresses that differ only in case count as one. File names that look like addresses, such as logo@2x.png, are ignored. Switch to domains with counts to see how many addresses belong to each company.
Phone numbers
Choose the country the local numbers belong to. A number that starts with + or 00 carries its own country and is read as it is. Every other number is treated as local. Each one comes out in E.164, as +2609XXXXXXXX, or in national format, as 09XXXXXXXX. The same number written two ways is listed once.
A number is rejected when it is too short or too long for its country, has more than 15 digits, or looks like a date, an IP address or a decimal number. Rejected ones are listed under the counters with their line and the reason, so you can check them against the source. To convert a column that is already clean, use the phone number formatter.
URLs
Links that start with http://, https:// or www. are found. A full stop, comma or closing bracket at the end belongs to the sentence and is left off, but a bracket inside the link stays. The path and query are kept exactly, and two links count as the same only when the path matches in case too. Domains with counts lists each site once, without www.
Numbers
Whole numbers and decimals are found and kept as text, so 00123 keeps its zeros. A number written 1,250 comes out as 1 and 250, because a comma is also how lists are separated. Dates, version numbers and IP addresses are left out and counted. A value that Excel has already shortened, such as 3.5E+14, is listed as it is and never counted as a repeat. The digits that were lost cannot be recovered; the text and ID cleaner explains why and how to avoid it.
Saving as CSV
The CSV has a header row and a count column. If the values are long digits or start with zeros, open the file in Excel with Data, From Text/CSV and set that column to Text, instead of double-clicking it.
Questions
How do I extract email addresses from text?
Paste the text, an email thread, a spreadsheet dump or a web page, and choose email addresses. Every address appears once, with the domain in lower case. Copy the list, or save it as a CSV with a count for each address.
How do I get phone numbers out of a WhatsApp chat?
Paste the exported chat, choose phone numbers and pick the country the local numbers belong to. Numbers that start with + or 00 are read as they are. Every number comes out in E.164 or national format, and anything that was rejected is listed with the reason.
Why was a phone number rejected?
The number is too short or too long for the country, has more than 15 digits, or looks like a date, an IP address or a decimal number. The reason is shown next to the line it came from, so you can fix it in the source.
Does it keep the whole URL?
Yes, including the path and query. Punctuation that belongs to the sentence, such as a full stop, comma or closing bracket, is left off. Two links are the same only if the path matches exactly, because a path can be case-sensitive.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. The text is read in your browser and nothing you paste is sent to a server, saved or put in the address. Only your option choices are remembered on your device.
If your team copies contacts out of emails or chat exports by hand, Mbule.Tech can build a tool that puts them straight into your own format.