LibGuides: Digital Tools for Research: Sorting & Viewing Data

Sorting & Viewing Data

Sorting Data
Changing Grid View

Sorting Data

OpenRefine includes a “Sort” function which works similarly to sorting in Excel. This function allows you to arrange your data according to a defined order within one or more columns.

Sorting by One Column

Go to the column you would like to sort by and click the arrow button on the column header.
Select the “Sort” option.
In the pop-up window, select the criteria and order you wish to sort by and select “Ok.”
The order of rows/records will change in the grid view according to your selections

Tips

The “Sort” function does not permanently change the order of your rows/records, only the order you view them in. This can be checked by looking at the row/record numbers at the left of the grid view.
The order of your rows/records can be permanently changed by selecting “Sort” at the top of the grid view and choosing “Reorder rows permanently.”
The “Sort” function can be removed by selecting “Sort” at the top of the grid view and choosing “Remove sort.”

Sorting by Multiple Columns

Follow steps 1-4 above for your first sort.
Do not remove the first sort, but choose your second column and repeat steps 1-2.
In the pop-up window DO NOT select the “Sort by this column alone” option and select “Ok.”
The order of rows/columns will change in the grid view according to your first sort and then within that, according to the second sort

Tips

If you have applied multiple sorts, you can remove each one individually or as a group. This can be done by selecting “Sort” at the top of the grid view, hovering over the sort title you wish to remove, and selecting “Remove sort.”

Adapted from OpenRefine LibGuide (2023). University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Non-Permanent Changes

Collapsing Columns

Non-permanent changes to the grid view include collapsing columns in one of four ways: collapsing the current column, collapsing all other columns, collapsing all columns to the left of the current column, or collapsing all columns to the right of the current column. These operations do not permanently delete columns from your data, they only hide the selected columns from view.

Go to the column you would like to change and click the arrow button on the column header.
Select the “View” option and pick the best option from the dropdown:
1. Collapse this column
2. Collapse all other columns
3. Collapse all columns to left (see second image below)
4. Collapse all columns to right
The collapsed column(s) are replaced by a narrow placeholder.
To reopen collapsed columns, click on the placeholder.

Permanent Changes

Moving, Removing and Renaming a Single Column

Permanent changes to the grid view include rearranging columns, removing columns, and/or renaming columns.

NB! Changes to column order or column name and removal of columns are logged as transformations in your tracked history. To undo these changes, follow the instructions found in History and Undo/Redo.

Go to the column you would like to rearrange or remove and click the arrow button on the column header.
Select the “Edit columns” option and choose the option that best fits from the dropdown:
1. Rename this column
2. Remove this column
3. Move column to beginning
4. Move column to end
5. Move column left
6. Move column right

Reordering Multiple Columns

OpenRefine allows you to reorder your columns for better contextualization or to prepare for further transformations of your data. Reordering columns can be useful when preparing to combine column data or to rearrange columns after splitting column data.

Go to the first column, labelled “All,” and click the arrow button on the column header.
Select the option “Edit columns” and then choose “Re-order/remove columns.”
In the pop-up window, click and drag the column titles into the order in which you would like them to be displayed or drag them to the far right to remove the columns.