What is OpenRefine?

OpenRefine is a free, open source, Java application, that runs offline in a web browser.

“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

David Huynh

Exciting Trailers from Google!

If you want a visual introduction, check out these trailers from Google created for an early version:

• Introduction
• Data Transformation
• Data Augmentation

Tabular Data

Refine can handle all sorts of data!

• Import formats: TSV, CSV, custom separator txt, Excel, XML, JSON, Google Spreadsheets, RDF
• Sources: local file, archive (zip), URL, clipboard, or Google

Comfortable performance up to 100,000’s of rows.

Use Cases

Clean - discover and fix inconsistency with faceting, clustering, cell transforms, GREL expressions…

Transform - change formats or reshape with split/join multi valued cells, split columns, transpose columns/rows…

Extend - enrich data by combining files, merging projects, fetching URLs, reconciliation with online databases…

Automate - reuse your processing routine by exporting operation history in JSON!