What are spaces and newlines in text?

Spaces and newlines are whitespace characters that control how text is formatted and displayed. A space separates words on the same line, while a newline (also called a line break) moves text to the next line. These characters are invisible but essential for readability and text structure. In programming and data processing, converting between spaces and newlines is a common task for reformatting data, parsing lists, or preparing text for different applications.

Why convert between spaces and newlines?

Many data formats use either spaces or newlines as delimiters. A list of items separated by spaces might need to be displayed vertically with each item on its own line, or vice versa. This conversion is particularly useful when working with command-line tools, preparing data for spreadsheets, formatting lists for documentation, or processing text files that use different delimiter conventions.

Tool description

Spaces Newlines Converter is a bidirectional text transformation tool that converts spaces to newlines or newlines to spaces. Simply paste your text, select the conversion direction, and get instant results. The tool handles multiple consecutive spaces or newlines intelligently, collapsing them into single delimiters to produce clean output.

Examples

Converting spaces to newlines:

Input:

apple orange banana grape

Output:

apple
orange
banana
grape

Converting newlines to spaces:

Input:

red
green
blue
yellow

Output:

red green blue yellow

Features

  • Bidirectional conversion — Switch between spaces-to-newlines and newlines-to-spaces with one click
  • Multiple delimiter handling — Consecutive spaces or newlines are collapsed into single delimiters
  • Real-time processing — See results instantly as you type or paste text
  • Swap functionality — Quickly reverse the conversion direction with the swap button
  • Clean output — Produces properly formatted text without extra whitespace

Use cases

  • Formatting word lists — Convert a horizontal list of words into a vertical list for easier reading or editing
  • Preparing command-line arguments — Transform multi-line lists into space-separated arguments for shell commands
  • Data cleanup — Reformat copied data from spreadsheets or databases that use inconsistent delimiters
  • Creating CSV or text files — Prepare data with proper line breaks for import into other applications
  • Documentation formatting — Convert inline lists to bulleted or numbered list formats