In this recipe, you will learn how to sort data as a visual aid and how to reorder rows permanently as a prerequisite for more advanced operations.
Because sorted values are easier to explore and manipulate, sorting data is certainly something you will want to do at some point when working with OpenRefine; you can either use the sorted values as a visual aid or reorder your records permanently. In order to sort your data by their Record ID, for instance, choose Sort... in the column menu to access the following window:
Cell values can be sorted according to their type: text (case-sensitive or not), numbers, dates, or Boolean values. For each type, we are offered two possible sorting orders:
Text: alphabetical (a to z) or reversed alphabetical (z to a)
Numbers: smallest first or largest first
Dates: earliest first or latest first
Booleans: false then true or true then false
Moreover, we can select where errors and blanks will be stored in relation to the valid values by dragging...