OpenRefine

OpenRefine
Developer(s)Freebase, then Google, now open source community
Initial releaseNovember 10, 2010; 13 years ago (2010-11-10)
Stable release
3.8.2[1] Edit this on Wikidata / 8 July 2024; 2 months ago (8 July 2024)
Repository
Written inJava[2]
PlatformMicrosoft Windows, Linux, macOS
Available inEnglish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, French, German
Type
LicenseBSD License
Websiteopenrefine.org Edit this on Wikidata

OpenRefine is an open-source desktop application for data cleanup and transformation to other formats, an activity commonly known as data wrangling.[3] It is similar to spreadsheet applications, and can handle spreadsheet file formats such as CSV, but it behaves more like a database.

It operates on rows of data which have cells under columns, similar to the manner in which relational database tables operate. OpenRefine projects consist of one table, whose rows can be filtered using facets that define criteria (for example, showing rows where a given column is not empty).

Unlike spreadsheets, most operations in OpenRefine are done on all visible rows, for example, the transformation of all cells in all rows under one column,[4] or the creation of a new column based on existing data. Actions performed on a dataset are stored the project and can be 'replayed' on other datasets. Formulas are not stored in cells, but are used to transform the data. Transformation is done only once.[5] Formula expressions can be written in General Refine Expression Language (GREL),[6] in Jython (i.e., Python), and in Clojure.[7]

The program operates as a local web app: it starts a web server and opens the default browser to 127.0.0.1:3333.

  1. ^ "Release 3.8.2". 8 July 2024. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  2. ^ "OpenRefine/OpenRefine - GitHub". GitHub. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  3. ^ "openrefine.github.com". openrefine.org.
  4. ^ "Editing by transforming: Cell Editing wiki page from Refine documentation". Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  5. ^ "Comparison with spreadsheet software: Cell Editing wiki page in Refine documentation". Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  6. ^ General Refine expression language OpenRefine/OpenRefine Wiki GitHub. Github.com (2013-04-03). Retrieved on 2013-08-16.
  7. ^ "Expressions: Refine documentation". Retrieved 18 April 2012.