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Cleaning Data with OpenRefine: Common Transformations

A guide to using the OpenRefine program to organize messy datasets

Common Transformations

Common transformations are grouped in a submenu for access.

Select the down arrow on the column header you would like to edit. Go to Edit cells > Common transforms.

 

Transformation Function
Trim leading and trailing whitespace Removes extra spaces before and after the value in each cell in the selected column.
Collapse consecutive whitespace Removes extra spaces between individual strings within a cell value in the selected column.
Unescape HTML entities Removes HTML strings indicating particular characters (e.g., “&” vs “&”).
Replace Smart quotes with ASCII Replaces Smart quotes (curly or curved apostrophes and commas) to their ASCII ("straight" version)
To titlecase Changes the first letter of all words within a cell to an uppercase letter.
To uppercase Changes all letters of all words within a cell to uppercase letters.
To lowercase Changes all letters of all words within a cell to lowercase letters.
To number Changes the cell format to number.
To date Changes the cell format to date.
To text Changes the cell format to text.
To null Changes the cell format to null.
To empty string Changes the cell format to empty string.
  • Last Updated: Jul 15, 2025 8:34 AM
  • URL: https://guides.lib.lsu.edu/openrefine
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Subjects: Research Guides