# Line Skip Extractor

Extract lines from text at regular intervals with customizable skip and extract patterns. Perfect for sampling every Nth line or extracting multiple lines with gaps.

> Canonical page: https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/step-line-extractor

- **Category:** Text Processing

- **Keywords:** step, skip, interval, extract, pattern, regular, sampling, nth, line

## Overview

The Line Skip Extractor is a precision text processing tool designed to sample or filter content by extracting specific lines at regular intervals. Whether you need to pull every Nth line from a large dataset or skip headers and metadata to isolate core information, this utility provides a flexible way to structure your text output.

## Inputs

- **Text Content** (textarea): Enter or paste your text content here... Line 1 Line 2 Line 3 Line 4 Line 5 Line 6 Line 7 Line 8 Line 9 Line 10
- **Skip Count** (number): Number of lines to skip (e.g., 4)
- **Extract Count** (number): Number of lines to extract (e.g., 1)
- **Start Index** (number): Starting line number (e.g., 1)
- **Trim White Space** (checkbox)
- **Include Empty Lines** (checkbox)
- **Preserve Original Line Numbers** (checkbox)
- **Show Line Numbers in Output** (checkbox)
- **Output Format** (select)

## When to use

- When you need to extract specific data points from large log files or structured text lists.
- When you want to remove repetitive headers or unwanted spacing by skipping specific line counts.
- When you need to sample a large document to create a smaller, representative subset of data.

## How it works

- Paste your source text into the input area.
- Define your pattern by setting the 'Skip Count' (lines to ignore) and 'Extract Count' (lines to keep).
- Adjust the 'Start Index' if you need to offset the beginning of your extraction.
- Select your preferred output format, such as JSON, CSV, or a numbered list, and process the text.

## Use cases

- Data Sampling: Quickly extract every 10th line from a massive dataset for statistical analysis.
- Log Cleaning: Remove timestamp headers or repetitive system messages by skipping specific lines.
- Report Formatting: Convert raw text dumps into structured CSV or JSON formats for spreadsheet imports.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can I extract more than one line at a time?

Yes, you can adjust the 'Extract Count' to pull multiple consecutive lines before the tool skips to the next interval.

### How does the 'Skip Count' work?

The Skip Count determines how many lines the tool ignores after completing an extraction cycle.

### What happens to empty lines in my text?

You can toggle the 'Include Empty Lines' option to either preserve them in the output or filter them out entirely.

### Can I keep the original line numbers?

Yes, the tool includes a 'Preserve Original Line Numbers' option to ensure you can track the source of your extracted data.

### What output formats are supported?

The tool supports several formats including Plain Text, Numbered List, Table, JSON, and CSV.

## Related tools

- [Even Line Extractor](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/even-line-extractor): Extract even-numbered lines from text content with support for various indexing methods and custom criteria
- [Odd Line Extractor](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/odd-line-extractor): Extract odd-numbered lines from text content with support for various indexing methods and custom criteria
- [Phone Number Extractor](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/phone-number-extractor): Extract phone numbers from mixed text with support for multiple countries and formats
- [SRT / ASS Subtitle Text Extractor](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/srt-ass-subtitle-extract-text): Extract clean dialogue text from pasted SRT, ASS, or SSA subtitles.
- [Text Line Extractor](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/text-line-extractor): Extract specific lines from text by line numbers or ranges
- [Upside-Down Text](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/upside-down-text): Flip text upside-down (ɥǝllo) with per-letter rotations, plus optional toggles to keep reading order and protect URLs/emails. Plain Unicode text, no font needed.
- [AI Currency & Number Extractor (AI货币数字提取器)](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/ai-currency-extractor): Use AI to intelligently extract numbers, currencies, and financial amounts from text with their original formatting preserved
- [Bulk Email Extractor](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/bulk-email-extractor): Extract all email addresses from input text, articles, web source code, or mixed content. Supports deduplication and export to JSON.

## Samples

- [Duplicate Line Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/text-duplicate-line-samples): Sample files with various types of duplicate lines for testing duplicate removal tools
- [Changelog Extractor Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/changelog-extractor): Various changelog formats for testing changelog parsing and extraction tools
- [Markdown Link Extractor Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/markdown-with-links): Sample Markdown documents with various link types for testing the Markdown Link Extractor tool
- [Phone Number Extractor Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/phone-number-extractor): Collection of mixed text containing phone numbers from various countries for extraction testing