How is this different from the string category's Line Unquoter?

Line Unquoter only splits on newlines. List Item Unquoter accepts a configurable separator, so it can strip quotes from a comma-separated list or a custom-delimited list, not just one item per line.

Do I need to specify whether items use single or double quotes?

No, the tool auto-detects the quote character per item: if an item starts and ends with the same quote character (either " or '), that pair is stripped. Items using mismatched or no quotes are left as-is.

What happens to an item quoted with mismatched quote marks, like "text'?

It's left untouched, since the first and last characters don't match. Only a genuine matching pair at the very start and end of an item is stripped.

List Item Unquoter - Strip Quotes From a List

Overview

Introduction

Quoted values pasted from code, CSV exports, or JSON arrays often need their surrounding quotes stripped before further processing.

This tool automatically detects and removes a matching pair of quote characters from every item in a list.

What Is List Item Unquoter?

A list transformer that strips a surrounding matching pair of quote characters, single or double, from each item.

Unlike the string category's newline-only Line Unquoter, this tool accepts a configurable separator for comma or custom-delimited lists too.

How List Item Unquoter Works

The list is split into items using the resolved separator, and each item is checked for a matching quote character at both its first and last position.

If the first and last characters match and are either " or ', they're stripped; otherwise the item is left unchanged, and the result is rejoined using the list separator.

When To Use List Item Unquoter

Use it when you've pasted in a quoted list, from code, CSV, or JSON, and need the plain, unquoted values.

It's also useful before feeding list items into another tool that doesn't expect surrounding quote characters.

Often used alongside List Item Quoter, List Item Unwrapper and Line Unquoter.

Features

Advantages

Automatically detects single vs. double quotes per item, no manual selection needed.
Safe on mixed lists, only items with a genuine matching quote pair are modified.
Works with any of the supported list separator modes.

Limitations

Does not unescape internal escaped quote characters within an item, it only strips the outer matching pair.
Items with mismatched quote characters at each end are left untouched by design.
Very short items (fewer than 2 characters) are never treated as quoted, since there's no room for a matching pair.

Examples

Removing double quotes

Input

"apple"
"banana"

Output

apple
banana

The matching double-quote pair is stripped from each item.

Mixed quote styles and unquoted items

Input

'a'
plain

Output

a
plain

The single-quoted item has its quotes removed; the plain item passes through untouched.

Best Practices & Notes

Best Practices

Use this before further text processing if your source list came from a quoted code array or CSV export.
Check output for items with mismatched quote marks, which are intentionally left unchanged rather than partially stripped.
Pair with List Item Wrapper's inverse, List Item Unwrapper, if your items have non-quote wrapping characters instead.

Developer Notes

Implemented by checking each item's first and last character (`item[0]` and `item[item.length - 1]`); if they're equal and one of `"` or `'`, `String.prototype.slice(1, -1)` removes them, otherwise the item passes through unchanged.

List Item Unquoter Use Cases

Stripping quotes from a list of values copied out of code or JSON
Cleaning up quoted CSV field values into plain text
Preparing quoted list items for use in a tool that expects plain, unquoted values

Common Mistakes

Expecting internal escaped quotes within an item to be unescaped; only the outer matching pair is removed.
Assuming mismatched quote marks at the start and end will still be stripped; they're intentionally left alone.
Forgetting to select the right separator mode, which can prevent items from splitting correctly before the quote check runs.

Tips

Use List Item Quoter afterward if you want to re-wrap the plain items in a consistent quote style.
Use List Item Unwrapper instead if your items are wrapped in non-quote characters like brackets or parentheses.

List Item Unquoter