OpenRefine (formerly Google Refine) is a powerful free and open source tool
for working with messy
data: cleaning it and transforming it from one format into another. This lesson will teach you to use OpenRefine to effectively clean and format
data and automatically track any changes that you make. Many people comment
that this tool saves them literally months of work trying to make these
edits by hand. Data Carpentry’s teaching is hands-on, so participants are encouraged to use
their own computers to insure the proper setup of tools for an efficient
workflow. These lessons assume no prior knowledge of the skills or tools. To get started, follow the directions in the “Setup” tab to
download data to your computer and follow any installation instructions. This lesson requires a working copy of OpenRefine (also called
GoogleRefine).

To most effectively use these materials, please make sure to install
everything before working through this lesson.