Truncate List - Cut List Items to a Specific Length Online

What Is a List Truncator?

The Truncate List tool lets you cut any list to a specific number of items by removing elements from either the beginning or the end. Whether you need to preview the first few items of a long list, trim the tail of a data set, or extract a specific portion, this tool handles it in real time.

How to Truncate a List

Paste your list into the Input List text area.
Set the Input Separator to match how your list items are currently delimited.
Switch to Delimiting Regex mode if your separator is a pattern rather than a fixed string.
Enter the desired List Length (how many items to keep).
Choose Remove from End to keep the first N items, or Remove from Start to keep the last N items.
Set the Joining Character for the output list.
The truncated list appears instantly in the output area.

Common Use Cases

Preview just the first few items of a long dataset.
Trim unnecessary items from the end of a list before processing.
Extract the most recent N entries from a chronological list by removing from start.
Limit list output to a specific size for display or reporting purposes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "Remove from End" do?

It keeps the first N items of your list and removes everything after that point. For example, with a list of 10 items and a length of 5, it keeps items 1 through 5.

What does "Remove from Start" do?

It keeps the last N items of your list and removes everything before that point. For example, with a list of 10 items and a length of 5, it keeps items 6 through 10.

Can I use a regular expression as a separator?

Yes. Switch the mode to Delimiting Regex and enter a valid regex pattern. For example, \s+ will split on any whitespace.

What happens if the list is shorter than the requested length?

The entire list is returned unchanged. The tool never adds padding or extra items.