Comma List Toggle Action for Mac

Overview

What Comma List Toggle does

Joins multiple non-empty standard or rich-text lines with commas, or splits one comma-separated line while respecting commas inside matching quotes.

Category	Text Editing & Formatting
Action type	JavaScript
Default result	Replace selected text by default
Internet	Not required

Example

Action and outcome

Comma List Toggle example
Action	Outcome
Comma List ToggleSelected text: Apple, Banana, "Pear, green"	Apple Banana "Pear, green"

Workflow

Use Comma List Toggle

Follow these steps to switch between comma-separated values and separate lines with ActionClip.

Select the text you want to use.
Choose Comma List Toggle from ActionClip.
In editable text, ActionClip replaces the selection immediately. In read-only text, it opens the result for review and copying.

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 lines = selected_text
    .split(/\r\n|[\n\r\u000B\u000C\u0085\u2028\u2029]/)
    .map((line) => line.trim())
    .filter((line) => line.length > 0);

  if (lines.length > 1) return lines.join(", ");
  if (lines.length === 0) return "";

  const values = [];
  let current = "";
  let quote = null;
  for (let index = 0; index < lines[0].length; index += 1) {
    const character = lines[0][index];
    if ((character === '"' || character === "'") && quote === null) {
      quote = character;
      current += character;
    } else if (character === quote) {
      if (lines[0][index + 1] === quote) {
        current += character + character;
        index += 1;
      } else {
        quote = null;
        current += character;
      }
    } else if (character === "," && quote === null) {
      if (current.trim()) values.push(current.trim());
      current = "";
    } else {
      current += character;
    }
  }
  if (current.trim()) values.push(current.trim());
  return values.length > 1 ? values.join("\n") : lines[0];
}