Whitespace Visualizer

The Whitespace Visualizer makes invisible text characters visible so you can debug formatting problems that normal editors hide. It is especially useful for code reviews, YAML and TOML indentation, CSV cleanup, Markdown rendering issues, copied web text, terminal logs, and any situation where a space, tab, newline, non-breaking space, or zero-width character changes the result.

What This Tool Reveals

• Spaces: ordinary spaces appear as · markers.
• Tabs: tab characters appear as ⇥ markers and can be displayed with 2, 4, or 8 column width.
• Line endings: LF, CRLF, and CR endings are labeled separately so cross-platform text problems are easier to spot.
• Trailing whitespace: spaces, tabs, and non-breaking spaces at the end of a line are highlighted as warnings.
• Unicode invisibles: NBSP, ZWSP, BOM, soft hyphen, joiners, direction marks, and other format characters are shown as labeled tokens.

Common Uses

• Debug YAML or Python files where tabs and spaces are accidentally mixed.
• Find trailing spaces that break linting, snapshots, Markdown, or strict test fixtures.
• Identify non-breaking spaces copied from web pages, PDFs, spreadsheets, or rich text editors.
• Check whether text uses Unix LF, Windows CRLF, or old-style CR line endings.
• Expose zero-width characters that make two strings look identical but compare differently.

Examples and Debugging Tips

• YAML failure: if one list item starts with ⇥ while the previous item starts with ··, replace the tab with spaces before validating the file.
• Markdown surprise: highlighted trailing spaces may be intentional line breaks in Markdown, but accidental trailing spaces can also create noisy diffs.
• Copy-paste mismatch: a visible NBSP token usually means text came from a web page, PDF, spreadsheet, or rich text source instead of a plain text editor.
• String comparison bug: ZWSP, BOM, and direction marks can make strings look identical while equality checks, slugs, or database keys fail.
• Cross-platform files: mixed CRLF and LF endings often appear after editing the same file on Windows, macOS, Linux, or inside containers.

How to Use

1. Paste the code, YAML, CSV, log line, or formatted text into the text box.
2. Choose whether to show spaces, tabs, line endings, Unicode controls, and trailing whitespace.
3. Click Visualize Whitespace to render the line-by-line marked view.
4. Review the warning count, indentation rows, line endings, and copyable marked output.

FAQ

What does the Whitespace Visualizer show?

It shows spaces, tabs, newlines, carriage returns, non-breaking spaces, zero-width Unicode characters, control characters, indentation, and trailing whitespace that are normally invisible in a text editor or browser.

Can this help debug YAML indentation?

Yes. YAML is sensitive to indentation. The tool marks spaces and tabs separately, flags mixed indentation lines, and shows the exact leading spaces and tabs for each line.

How can I spot trailing whitespace?

Trailing spaces, tabs, and non-breaking spaces are highlighted at the end of each line. The summary also counts how many lines contain trailing whitespace.

Does it detect zero-width characters?

Yes. Common invisible Unicode characters such as zero width space, zero width joiner, byte order mark, soft hyphen, and direction marks are displayed as labeled tokens with code point tooltips.

Is my pasted text stored?

No. The tool processes the submitted text to create the visible whitespace view and does not store the content.