What is OpenRefine?
OpenRefine is a free, open source, standalone Java application for exploring, cleaning, and transforming data, that runs offline in a web browser.
The original creator David Huynh said Refine is:
“A power tool for working with messy data”
- more powerful than a spreadsheet
- more interactive and visual than scripting
- more provisional / exploratory / experimental / playful than a database
Although Refine works with tabular data similar to spreadsheet programs, the interface is unique, providing column-centric menus used to manipulate views and subset your data. It is not useful for traditional data entry, but is an incredibly powerful and flexible tool for a variety of data wrangling tasks.
Explore - navigate and evaluate quality with visualizations and filters that help dig deeply into the data so you can get to know it better…
Clean - efficiently discover and fix inconsistency with faceting, clustering, cell transforms, GREL expressions…
Enrich - extend and enhance data by combining files, merging projects, fetching URLs, reconciliation with online databases…
Transform - easily change formats, subset, or reshape with split/join multi valued cells, split columns, transpose columns/rows…
Automate - record and preserve your processing routine for transparency, then automate reuse by exporting operation history in JSON!