diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index 70e486a29..6f5f78873 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -3,19 +3,19 @@ uuid = "09ab397b-f2b6-538f-b94a-2f83cf4a842a"
 version = "0.4.1"
 
 [deps]
-PooledArrays = "2dfb63ee-cc39-5dd5-95bd-886bf059d720"
+DataAPI = "9a962f9c-6df0-11e9-0e5d-c546b8b5ee8a"
 Tables = "bd369af6-aec1-5ad0-b16a-f7cc5008161c"
-WeakRefStrings = "ea10d353-3f73-51f8-a26c-33c1cb351aa5"
 
 [compat]
-PooledArrays = "0.5"
+DataAPI = "1"
 Tables = "0.2"
-WeakRefStrings = "0.5, 0.6"
 julia = "1"
 
 [extras]
 OffsetArrays = "6fe1bfb0-de20-5000-8ca7-80f57d26f881"
+PooledArrays = "2dfb63ee-cc39-5dd5-95bd-886bf059d720"
 Test = "8dfed614-e22c-5e08-85e1-65c5234f0b40"
+WeakRefStrings = "ea10d353-3f73-51f8-a26c-33c1cb351aa5"
 
 [targets]
-test = ["Test", "OffsetArrays"]
+test = ["Test", "OffsetArrays", "PooledArrays", "WeakRefStrings"]
diff --git a/src/StructArrays.jl b/src/StructArrays.jl
index 8a3476764..c9f52df1a 100644
--- a/src/StructArrays.jl
+++ b/src/StructArrays.jl
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 module StructArrays
 
 using Base: tuple_type_cons, tuple_type_head, tuple_type_tail, tail
-using PooledArrays: PooledArray
 
 export StructArray, StructVector, LazyRow, LazyRows
 export collect_structarray, fieldarrays
@@ -10,6 +9,7 @@ export replace_storage
 include("interface.jl")
 include("structarray.jl")
 include("utils.jl")
+include("refarray.jl")
 include("collect.jl")
 include("sort.jl")
 include("groupjoin.jl")
diff --git a/src/refarray.jl b/src/refarray.jl
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a08981784
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/refarray.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+import DataAPI: refarray, refvalue
+
+refarray(s::StructArray) = StructArray(map(refarray, fieldarrays(s)))
+
+function refvalue(s::StructArray{T}, v::Tup) where {T}
+    createinstance(T, map(refvalue, fieldarrays(s), v)...)
+end
diff --git a/src/sort.jl b/src/sort.jl
index df54b4f89..46cbddfec 100644
--- a/src/sort.jl
+++ b/src/sort.jl
@@ -1,16 +1,7 @@
 using Base.Sort, Base.Order
-using WeakRefStrings: WeakRefString, StringArray
-
-refs(v::PooledArray) = v.refs
-function refs(a::StringArray{T}) where {T}
-    S = Union{WeakRefString{UInt8}, typeintersect(T, Missing)}
-    convert(StringArray{S}, a)
-end
-refs(v::AbstractArray) = v
-refs(v::StructArray) = StructArray(map(refs, fieldarrays(v)))
 
 function Base.permute!!(c::StructArray, p::AbstractVector{<:Integer})
-    Base.invoke(Base.permute!!, Tuple{AbstractArray, AbstractVector{<:Integer}}, refs(c), p)
+    Base.invoke(Base.permute!!, Tuple{AbstractArray, AbstractVector{<:Integer}}, refarray(c), p)
     return c
 end
 
@@ -42,7 +33,7 @@ Base.IteratorSize(::Type{<:GroupPerm}) = Base.SizeUnknown()
 Base.eltype(::Type{<:GroupPerm}) = UnitRange{Int}
 
 @inline function roweq(x::AbstractVector, i, j)
-    r = refs(x)
+    r = refarray(x)
     @inbounds eq = isequal(r[i], r[j])
     return eq
 end
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index 8a50c566e..15d0cfdfd 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ using StructArrays
 using StructArrays: staticschema, iscompatible, _promote_typejoin, append!!
 using OffsetArrays: OffsetArray
 import Tables, PooledArrays, WeakRefStrings
+using DataAPI: refarray, refvalue
 using Test
 
 @testset "index" begin
@@ -121,9 +122,7 @@ end
     b = PooledArrays.PooledArray(["1", "2", "3"])
     c = [:a, :b, :c]
     s = StructArray(a=a, b=b, c=c)
-    ref = StructArrays.refs(s)
-    @test ref[1].a isa WeakRefStrings.WeakRefString{UInt8}
-    @test ref[1].b isa Integer
+    ref = refarray(s)
     Base.permute!!(ref, sortperm(s))
     @test issorted(s)
 end
@@ -623,16 +622,26 @@ end
     @test str == "LazyRows(::Array{Float64,2}, ::Array{Float64,2})"
 end
 
-@testset "refs" begin
+@testset "refarray" begin
     s = PooledArrays.PooledArray(["a", "b", "c", "c"])
-    @test StructArrays.refs(s) == UInt8.([1, 2, 3, 3])
+    @test refarray(s) == UInt8.([1, 2, 3, 3])
 
     s = WeakRefStrings.StringArray(["a", "b"])
-    @test StructArrays.refs(s) isa WeakRefStrings.StringArray{WeakRefStrings.WeakRefString{UInt8}}
-    @test all(isequal.(s, StructArrays.refs(s)))
+    @test refarray(s) isa WeakRefStrings.StringArray{WeakRefStrings.WeakRefString{UInt8}}
+    @test all(isequal.(s, refarray(s)))
     s = WeakRefStrings.StringArray(["a", missing])
-    @test StructArrays.refs(s) isa WeakRefStrings.StringArray{Union{WeakRefStrings.WeakRefString{UInt8}, Missing}}
-    @test all(isequal.(s, StructArrays.refs(s)))
+    @test refarray(s) isa WeakRefStrings.StringArray{Union{WeakRefStrings.WeakRefString{UInt8}, Missing}}
+    @test all(isequal.(s, refarray(s)))
+    a = WeakRefStrings.StringVector(["a", "b", "c"])
+    b = PooledArrays.PooledArray(["1", "2", "3"])
+    c = [:a, :b, :c]
+    s = StructArray(a=a, b=b, c=c)
+    ref = refarray(s)
+    @test ref[1].a isa WeakRefStrings.WeakRefString{UInt8}
+    @test ref[1].b isa Integer
+    for i in 1:3
+        @test refvalue(s, ref[i]) == s[i]
+    end
 end
 
 @testset "show" begin