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Essential Spreadsheet Data Cleaning with OpenRefine

This guide accompanies the Galter Health Sciences Library class of the same name, or can be used on its own to learn a few essential data cleaning functions of the open source application OpenRefine.

Download and Install OpenRefine

When you download the program from OpenRefine.org, a Zip file will go to your Downloads folder. Unpack or Unzip this file to the new location on your machine where you'd like the program to reside. When the Zip file has been unpacked, you should see something like the following:

Screenshot showing the unpacked OpenRefine zip file

The application is the file with the diamond icon. You can create a shortcut to the application and place it on your desktop for easy access.