Unstructured Text
Remove Punctuation
Delete punctuation marks from your text while keeping letters, numbers, symbols and spacing.
When to use it
Typical uses: Preparing text for word-frequency or keyword analysis; Creating clean datasets for machine learning; Normalising phrases before comparing them.
In a pipeline
Text InputRemove PunctuationText Output
Settings
| Setting | Type | Required | Default or hint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text column | select | — | Text |
| Keep apostrophes (don't, it's) | checkbox | — | true |
| Generate New Column | checkbox | — | false |
| New Column Name | text | — | Default: <column> Result |
| Insert After | select | — | After the column |
| When a value cannot be converted | select | — | stop |
Example
Remove Punctuation: an example
| Text |
|---|
| "Wait," she said. "Don't go, not yet!" (It's 5:30 p.m.) |
| Text |
|---|
| Wait she said Don't go not yet It's 530 pm |
Worth knowing
- Are symbols like $ and % removed? No. They are symbols rather than punctuation. Use Remove Special Characters to remove those too.
- Why did the time 5:30 become 530? The colon is a punctuation mark, so it is removed. Keep this in mind for times, decimals and ratios.
- Does it work for languages other than English? Yes. It uses the Unicode definition of punctuation, which covers most writing systems.
- Works on any text column, not only Text Input's: pick it under Text column. Tick Generate New Column to keep the original next to the result.