Clean text for analysis
Removing punctuation is a common first step before counting words, comparing texts, building word clouds or feeding text into scripts. The tool uses the Unicode definition of punctuation, so it handles every language (Spanish ¿¡, French « », Chinese 。、, Arabic ،) not just ASCII.
Keep what matters
Stripping everything can damage words:
- Keep apostrophes in words preserves “don’t”, “O’Brien” and “l’été” while removing quotation marks.
- Keep hyphens in words preserves “well-known” and “e-mail” while removing dashes used as punctuation.
- Keep . ! ? removes everything except sentence endings, so the text can still be split into sentences.
Turn on Also remove symbols to strip currency signs, maths symbols, © and similar characters as well. Leftover double spaces are collapsed automatically.
Worked example
Here is what the Remove Punctuation returns for its built-in example. Settings used: Keep apostrophes in words: on; Keep hyphens in words: on; Keep . ! ?: off. Click Try an example in the tool above to load it, then change it as you like.
“Well-known” authors don’t always agree; e.g., some (but not all) love semicolons — and exclamation marks!!! Price: $5 + tax.Well-known authors don’t always agree eg some but not all love semicolons and exclamation marks Price $5 + taxQuestions
Does it remove apostrophes?
By default, apostrophes inside words (don’t, it’s) are kept and quotation marks are removed. Turn the option off to remove them all.
Does it work with non-English text?
Yes. Punctuation is detected with Unicode categories, so it works for any script.
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