Stringlist to Combo

Sometimes a "list" reaches you as one string: a line from a file, a comma-or-dollar-delimited batch value, a prompt packed into a single text field. Stringlist to Combo is the small node that splits that string on a separator and hands back one element - by default the first, or any index you name - on a * (any-type) output socket. It's the quiet workhorse for turning serialized text back into a single usable value.

How it works

The logic is short and worth knowing exactly, because the edge cases are the feature:

• If the input isn't a string (a float, int or bool), it passes through unchanged.
• If the separator is empty, or simply isn't found in the string, the whole string comes back untouched - so it degrades gracefully instead of erroring.
• Otherwise it splits on the separator and returns splitted[index].
• If index is beyond the list, it returns the last element rather than crashing.

So with string = "sky$sea$forest" and the default separator $ and index = 0, you get sky; index 2 gives forest; index 9 gives forest too, thanks to that last-element fallback.

The inputs that matter

• string (STRING, forceInput) - the delimited text. It's marked forceInput, meaning you'll typically feed it from another node (a file reader, a text line extractor) rather than typing.
• separator (STRING, default $) - the delimiter. Default is the dollar sign, not a comma - so if you're splitting comma-separated values, set it to ,.
• index (INT, default 0) - which element to pick; optional.

The single output is * (any), which means it plugs into nearly any socket - that's the point of a combo-style utility: it adapts to what you're feeding downstream.

Why you'd reach for it

It slots into the RvTools philosophy of workflow plumbing: strings that arrive on one wire (from wildcard systems, file lists, config text) get broken out into a selectable value. Pair it with an index slider and you've got a poor man's list browser - flip the index, get a different element. It's also handy with the pack's own text/wildcard nodes when you've got a packed string and want one token out.

Installing it

ComfyUI Manager → search ComfyUI-RvTools_v2, install, restart; or:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/r-vage/ComfyUI-RvTools_v2

No model downloads, no extra dependencies.

Gotchas

The pack is unmaintained (superseded by ComfyUI_Eclipse) but this is stable plumbing. The v2 rename is the recurring trap for legacy ComfyUI-RvTools v1 workflows. Node-specific: remember the default separator is $ - if you feed it a comma list without changing the separator, the split won't happen and you'll get the whole string back (which is at least a predictable failure). And because non-string inputs pass through untouched, don't expect it to convert numbers to strings - that's a different job.