Remove Hidden Characters

Invisible Unicode characters are frequently and accidentally copied from PDFs, rich text editors, email clients, or corrupted database exports. While you cannot see them on your screen, these hidden artifacts exist in the underlying data. They can cause mysterious syntax errors in programming languages, fail strict database constraints, break JSON parsers, or disrupt search indexing algorithms. This tool systematically finds and removes them from your string.

This utility utilizes strict JavaScript regular expressions to remove specific targeted ranges of invisible and directional formatting characters. The exact list of removed characters includes Zero-Width Joiners and Spaces (U+200B, U+200C, U+200D), the Byte Order Mark (U+FEFF), and explicit Directional Formatting Marks such as the Left-to-Right Mark (U+200E) and the Right-to-Left Mark (U+200F). It also strips Directional Embedding and Override Marks like LRE, RLE, PDF, LRO, and RLO (spanning U+202A through U+202E).

One of the most common practical use cases for this tool is debugging failed string comparisons. If two strings look identical in your console but a strictly typed equality operator (`===`) evaluates to false, an invisible zero-width space is often the culprit. By pasting your strings through this tool, you guarantee that all standard invisible artifacts are purged before running your comparisons.

Because developers frequently paste sensitive source code, API keys, or proprietary data into this tool to debug syntax errors, we built it to run entirely locally. The regular expression cleanup happens strictly within your local web browser environment. No text is ever transmitted over the network or saved to any backend infrastructure.