- Your list stays on your computer. Nothing is sent over the internet.
- Nothing is lost: you can see exactly which lines were taken out.
- You can't break anything. Your original list or file isn't changed.
- Free while we're getting started.
Put your list in the box
Paste it in, one thing per line. You can copy a column straight from a spreadsheet too. Or choose a text file.
Your tidy list
Your list will appear here as soon as you've put something in the box above.
Keep your tidy list
Copy it to paste somewhere else, or save it as a file.
What's really happening? (for the curious)
A computer sees your list as a series of lines. Each line ends where you pressed Enter. This page goes through the lines from top to bottom and remembers each one it has seen. If a line matches one it has already seen, it's left out. The first one stays where it was, so your list keeps its order.
To a computer, Mary Jones and mary jones are different, because capital and small letters are stored as different characters. The "Ignore capital letters" option compares the lines as if they were all small letters. Your list still keeps its original capitals. "Ignore extra spaces" does the same for spaces at the start or end of a line, or two spaces where one would do. They're invisible on screen but easily slip in when copying.
Spreadsheets can be saved as a CSV file (comma-separated values). It's a plain text file where each row of the spreadsheet is one line, with commas between the columns. This page treats each row as one line, so it removes rows that are exactly repeated. It can't open Excel's own .xlsx files, but copying a column and pasting it into the box works just as well.
All of this happens inside your web browser (the program you're using to view this page, such as Chrome, Edge or Safari). Your list is never sent anywhere.