Cleaning data with OpenRefine

Do you have data which needs tidying up to remove inconsistencies, incorrect formatting and errors? Or do you have data that you want to enhance by extracting more information from it? Then you should consider using OpenRefine, a powerful, free tool that can be used for cleaning and transforming data. Relevant for researchers in all disciplines and roles, it can be used with data you have collected, or third-party data you are re-using.

In this practical session, we will focus on how to get started with OpenRefine and use some of its main functions.

Learning objectives

This session will help you to:

• Create a project in OpenRefine
• Use facets to explore your data
• Tidy up your data
• Extract more information from your data
• Export your work.

Before the Session

Please install OpenRefine on your computer.

If you are working on a University of Leicester computer, install it via the Software Centre.

If you are using on your own computer, install here.

People in humanities and social sciences may find it useful to attend the Spreadsheet for Humanities class first, but this is not compulsory.