Openrefine: The ability to insert and or append rows

[tfmorris]

_Original author: [email protected] (March 22, 2012 15:52:44)_

I have been using google refine a lot. PS think it's awesome.

When cleaning up data regularly I also need to add in new rows of information into the data set. Currently I have to export the data and then do the inserts in textmate or excel.

So just want the ability to insert rows and to manually edit the values in the cells.

_Original issue: http://code.google.com/p/google-refine/issues/detail?id=556_

[tfmorris]

_From tfmorris on September 18, 2012 20:06:34:_
Refine isn't really meant for arbitrary editing of spreadsheets, but one hack that you can use to do this within Refine is:

1. Add a cell value of ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,," (or something similar)
2. Use the Edit Cells -> Split multivalued cells to create a bunch of empty rows

Can you explain a little bit more about why you need blank rows which aren't based on the data that you are working with?

[tfmorris]

_From [email protected] on September 18, 2012 20:19:44:_
This is because when your cleansing data you come across obvious entries that are missing from data sets and want to add them then and there. A more common case in one project that you see a single row of data that should be split into two or more rows of data.

Example: When working on a new potential taxonomy you find entries of a number of column the the key is a value like
New York/New Jersey Value2 Value3 Value4
and I want to quickly fix this by inserting a new row with and fix the old row.
New York Value2 Value3 Value4
New Jersey Value2 Value3 Value4
There are a number of other cases like this when working the datasets your cleansing. If you would like me to clarify further or answer other questions please let me know I would love to help.

[tfmorris]

_From [email protected] on September 18, 2012 20:20:23:_
Does this explanation make sense?

[timelf123]

:+1:

[ostephens]

I've just released an extension[1] that allows the addition of blank rows into an existing project. This is a step up from the work around described by @tfmorris above, and may meet the use case described in the original issue. However it doesn't go as far as #715

1. http://github.com/ostephens/refine-gokbutils

[olea]

I've just released an extension[1]

I guess this is not the best place to report but I've just tried the extension on OR 3.4-beta and got this error:

12:34:24.980 [                butterfly] Error loading special module manager (344ms)
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.k_int.gokb.module.GOKbModuleImpl
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:382)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:418)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:351)
    at edu.mit.simile.butterfly.Butterfly.createModule(Butterfly.java:671)
    at edu.mit.simile.butterfly.Butterfly.configure(Butterfly.java:412)
    at edu.mit.simile.butterfly.Butterfly.init(Butterfly.java:308)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.initServlet(ServletHolder.java:440)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.doStart(ServletHolder.java:263)
    at com.google.refine.RefineServer.configure(Refine.java:291)
    at com.google.refine.RefineServer.init(Refine.java:203)
    at com.google.refine.Refine.init(Refine.java:109)
    at com.google.refine.Refine.main(Refine.java:103)

FYI

[ostephens]

I'm afraid that the extension has not been updated to work with the latest versions of OpenRefine. I haven't tested it across versions but it was originally written to work with v2.7, and my guess would be it will work OK up to v3.1 (but I've not tested it).

I migrated some of the functionality from the extension into the core product https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/pull/1993 but this didn't include the "add blank rows" option as it didn't feel that it added enough value beyond the hack that Tom describes above:

Add a cell value of ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,," (or something similar)
Use the Edit Cells -> Split multivalued cells to create a bunch of empty rows

[olea]

@ostephens thanks :-)