Open Source Software – How to Choose Data Analysis Software – Research Guides at University of Oregon Libraries

OpenRefine (previously known as Google Refine) is an open source pre-analysis software, built for cleaning and transforming messy data. Typical users include the social sciences, humanities, and profit/nonprofit corporations. Free download available. 

Pros
Cons

• Useful when working with messy data that needs to be cleaned or transformed before use
• Connects to database APIs
• Dataset merge capabilities
• Infinite number of undos/redos
• The actions taken to a dataset can be extracted and later applied on additional datasets
• Has web-based interface

• Uses programming language GREL which is less known and not always intuitive for beginners
• Is not convenient for data entry; datasets should be uploaded into the program
• Is less suited for large datasets; single columns cannot be collapsed for better viability 

Import and Export File Capabilities

Import: Excel files (.xls, .xlsx), Text files (.csv, .tsv), Web-based files (.xml, .html, .rdf) & additional formats (.json, .tar, .tar gz, Google Spreadsheets, Google Fusion Tables)

Export: Excel files (.xls, .xlsx), Text files (.csv, tsv), Web-based files (.html) & additional formats (.json, .tar, .tar gz)