Words in, valid JSON out.
Turn a space separated list into a valid JSON array. Splits on any run of whitespace, trims each item, escapes quotes, and runs in your browser.
The tool
Paste a space separated list and get back a valid JSON array of strings. Each run of whitespace acts as one separator, each item is trimmed, and empty items are dropped, so a list with double spaces or a stray line break still converts cleanly.
The output is pretty-printed with two-space indentation, which is the one output format this route produces. It runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded, there is no item cap and no run limit.
The detail that matters
Most converters that offer a space option split on one space character. Feed one of those a list with a double space in it and you get an empty item in the middle of your array, which then has to be cleaned out by hand.
This route treats any unbroken run of whitespace as a single separator. Two spaces, a tab, a line break, or all three together count as one boundary between items. That means a list copied out of a terminal, a spreadsheet cell or a wrapped email converts without needing to be tidied first.
How it works
There is nothing to configure, so this is genuinely a paste-and-copy job.
What you get back
This is the thing that surprises people most often, so it is worth being blunt about. The array is always an array of strings. Paste 42 and you get "42". Paste true and you get "true". Paste null and you get "null".
There is no type detection, because guessing types from a flat list is where these converters go wrong. A product code like 007 becomes the number 7 if something infers a type, and the leading zeros are gone for good. Keeping everything a string means nothing is silently reinterpreted, and casting the two values you actually wanted as numbers is a smaller job than finding the ones that got corrupted.
Valid output
Items containing a double quote or a backslash are escaped properly, so the array is valid JSON and will parse. A word like "hi" with quotes around it stays intact inside the string rather than terminating it early and breaking the file.
Non-ASCII text passes straight through. Accented words and CJK characters are preserved exactly as pasted, since the conversion never transliterates or strips anything.
Scope, stated honestly
It produces a flat array of strings and nothing more elaborate. There are no objects, no nesting and no key-value output, so a table with several columns is not a job for this page.
Other separators
If your items contain spaces of their own, this is the wrong route, because each word becomes its own item. A list of full names or product titles needs a separator that is not whitespace.
There are separate pages for comma, semicolon, colon, pipe, slash, tab, caret, tilde and double-space lists, and a custom delimiter route for anything else. Picking the page that matches your actual separator is faster than post-processing a wrong result.
Who it's for
Mostly developers turning something informal into something a program can read. A list of flags, IDs, tags or filenames pasted from a terminal, a chat message or a ticket, needed as an array in a config file, a test fixture or a request body.
It is also a fast sanity check. Converting a list and counting the items tells you immediately whether one of your values contains a space it should not, because the item count comes back higher than the number of things you pasted.
FAQ
Everything below is answered in full, nothing to click open.
Paste the list and run the conversion. Each whitespace-separated item becomes one string in a valid JSON array.
Yes. No item cap and no run limit, because the work happens on your own device.
No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser. No request goes out when you run it.
Nothing bad. A run of whitespace counts as one separator, so no empty items appear in the output.
Yes. Any whitespace acts as a separator, so a mixed list from a terminal or a spreadsheet converts fine.
No. Every item comes back as a string, so 42 becomes "42". Nothing is type-inferred.
Because type inference corrupts values like 007 or 1e5. Strings preserve exactly what you pasted.
Yes. The output is valid JSON, so an item containing a quote or a backslash parses correctly.
Yes. Accented characters and CJK text pass through unchanged.
No. Repeated items are kept in order. Use the remove duplicate lines route if you need them gone.
No. Empty items are always dropped, which is a deliberate limit of this route.
Not here. The result is always pretty-printed. Run it through the JSON minifier for a compact version.
Then this is the wrong route, because each word becomes a separate item. Use a delimiter route that matches your separator.
Comma, semicolon, colon, pipe, slash, tab, caret, tilde and double space, plus a custom delimiter route.
No. Nothing is sent anywhere, so nothing is metered or capped.
No. It works on text pasted into the box.
Not currently. This is a single-list tool running in your browser.
Yes, identically in any modern mobile browser.
No. The output is always a flat array of strings.
Almost always because one of your values contains a space, so it was split into two items.
Yes. It is produced by a JSON serialiser, so it parses as-is.
Yes. Nothing is transmitted or retained, because nothing leaves your browser.
Runs in your browser with nothing uploaded, no item cap and no run limit.
Convert to JSON