About OpenRefine
OpenRefine is a free, open source tool for working with messy data. It helps you clean it, transform it from one format into another and extend it with web services.
What it does
You load a table and explore it with facets, which filter and group values so you can see patterns. Clustering finds spelling variants that should be merged, and reconciliation matches your values against external databases. Every change is recorded, so you can undo any step or replay the history on a new version of the dataset.
Key features
- Facets to filter and explore large datasets
- Clustering to merge similar spelling variants
- Reconciliation against external databases
- Undo and redo through the full operation history
- Export cleaned data into other formats
Who it's for
Journalists, researchers, librarians and anyone who receives data in an inconsistent state. It is useful for one-off cleaning jobs as well as repeatable transformations.
Pricing and good to know
OpenRefine is free and licensed under BSD 3-Clause. The project says your data is cleaned on your own machine rather than in a cloud service, which helps with sensitive files. It runs on desktop systems and works in a browser window. Very large files can be slow, so split them if performance becomes a problem.
Highlights
- Filter and group values with facets
- Merge spelling variants with clustering
- Match values against external databases
- Undo any step in the full change history
- Export cleaned data into other formats
