SPARQL Query Language for RDF

Appendices

• A SPARQL Grammar
  • A.1 SPARQL Query String References
  • A.2 Codepoint Escape Sequences
  • A.3 White Space
  • A.4 Comments
  • A.5 IRI References
  • A.6 Blank Node Labels
  • A.7 Escape sequences in strings
  • A.8 Grammar
• B Conformance
• C Security Considerations (Informative)
• D Internet Media Type, File Extension and Macintosh File Type
• E References
• F Acknowledgements (Informative)

1 Introduction

RDF is a directed, labeled graph data format for representing information in the Web. RDF is often used to represent, among other things, personal information, social networks, metadata about digital artifacts, as well as to provide a means of integration over disparate sources of information. This specification defines the syntax and semantics of the SPARQL query language for RDF.

The SPARQL query language for RDF is designed to meet the use cases and requirements identified by the RDF Data Access Working Group in RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements [UCNR].

The SPARQL query language is closely related to the following specifications:

• The SPARQL Protocol for RDF [SPROT] specification defines the remote protocol for issuing SPARQL queries and receiving the results.
• The SPARQL Query Results XML Format [RESULTS] specification defines an XML document format for representing the results of SPARQL SELECT and ASK queries.

1.1 Document Outline

Unless otherwise noted in the section heading, all sections and appendices in this document are normative.

This section of the document, section 1, introduces the SPARQL query language specification. It presents the organization of this specification document and the conventions used throughout the specification.

Section 2 of the specification introduces the SPARQL query language itself via a series of example queries and query results. Section 3 continues the introduction of the SPARQL query language with more examples that demonstrate SPARQL's ability to express constraints on the RDF terms that appear in a query's results.

Section 4 presents details of the SPARQL query language's syntax. It is a companion to the full grammar of the language and defines how grammatical constructs represent IRIs, blank nodes, literals, and variables. Section 4 also defines the meaning of several grammatical constructs that serve as syntactic sugar for more verbose expressions.

Section 5 introduces basic graph patterns and group graph patterns, the building blocks from which more complex SPARQL query patterns are constructed. Sections 6, 7, and 8 present constructs that combine SPARQL graph patterns into larger graph patterns. In particular, Section 6 introduces the ability to make portions of a query optional; Section 7 introduces the ability to express the disjunction of alternative graph patterns; and Section 8 introduces the ability to constrain portions of a query to particular source graphs. Section 8 also presents SPARQL's mechanism for defining the source graphs for a query.

Section 9 defines the constructs that affect the solutions of a query by ordering, slicing, projecting, limiting, and removing duplicates from a sequence of solutions.

Section 10 defines the four types of SPARQL queries that produce results in different forms.

Section 11 defines SPARQL's extensible value testing framework. It also presents the functions and operators that can be used to constrain the values that appear in a query's results.

Section 12 is a formal definition of the evaluation of SPARQL graph patterns and solution modifiers.

Appendix A contains the normative definition of the SPARQL query language's syntax, as given by a grammar expressed in EBNF notation.

1.2 Document Conventions

1.2.1 Namespaces

In this document, examples assume the following namespace prefix bindings unless otherwise stated:

1.2.2 Data Descriptions

This document uses the Turtle [TURTLE] data format to show each triple explicitly. Turtle allows IRIs to be abbreviated with prefixes:

@prefix dc:   <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .
@prefix :     <http://example.org/book/> .
:book1  dc:title  "SPARQL Tutorial" .

1.2.3 Result Descriptions

Result sets are illustrated in tabular form.

A 'binding' is a pair (variable, RDF term). In this result set, there are three variables: x, y and z (shown as column headers). Each solution is shown as one row in the body of the table.  Here, there is a single solution, in which variable x is bound to "Alice", variable y is bound to <http://example/a>, and variable z is not bound to an RDF term. Variables are not required to be bound in a solution.

1.2.4 Terminology

The SPARQL language includes IRIs, a subset of RDF URI References that omits spaces. Note that all IRIs in SPARQL queries are absolute; they may or may not include a fragment identifier [RFC3987, section 3.1]. IRIs include URIs [RFC3986] and URLs. The abbreviated forms (relative IRIs and prefixed names) in the SPARQL syntax are resolved to produce absolute IRIs.

The following terms are defined in RDF Concepts and Abstract Syntax [CONCEPTS] and used in SPARQL:

• IRI (corresponds to the Concepts and Abstract Syntax term "RDF URI reference")
• literal
• lexical form
• plain literal
• language tag
• typed literal
• datatype IRI (corresponds to the Concepts and Abstract Syntax term "datatype URI")
• blank node

2 Making Simple Queries (Informative)

Most forms of SPARQL query contain a set of triple patterns called a basic graph pattern. Triple patterns are like RDF triples except that each of the subject, predicate and object may be a variable. A basic graph pattern matches a subgraph of the RDF data when RDF terms from that subgraph may be substituted for the variables and the result is RDF graph equivalent to the subgraph.

2.1 Writing a Simple Query

The example below shows a SPARQL query to find the title of a book from the given data graph. The query consists of two parts: the SELECT clause identifies the variables to appear in the query results, and the WHERE clause provides the basic graph pattern to match against the data graph. The basic graph pattern in this example consists of a single triple pattern with a single variable (?title) in the object position.

<http://example.org/book/book1> <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/title> "SPARQL Tutorial" .

SELECT ?title
WHERE
{
  <http://example.org/book/book1> <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/title> ?title .
}    

2.2 Multiple Matches

The result of a query is a solution sequence, corresponding to the ways in which the query's graph pattern matches the data. There may be zero, one or multiple solutions to a query.

Data:

@prefix foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a  foaf:name   "Johnny Lee Outlaw" .
_:a  foaf:mbox   <mailto:jlow@example.com> .
_:b  foaf:name   "Peter Goodguy" .
_:b  foaf:mbox   <mailto:peter@example.org> .
_:c  foaf:mbox   <mailto:carol@example.org> .

PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name ?mbox
WHERE
  { ?x foaf:name ?name .
    ?x foaf:mbox ?mbox }

Each solution gives one way in which the selected variables can be bound to RDF terms so that the query pattern matches the data. The result set gives all the possible solutions. In the above example, the following two subsets of the data provided the two matches.

 _:a foaf:name  "Johnny Lee Outlaw" .
 _:a foaf:box   <mailto:jlow@example.com> .

 _:b foaf:name  "Peter Goodguy" .
 _:b foaf:box   <mailto:peter@example.org> .

This is a basic graph pattern match; all the variables used in the query pattern must be bound in every solution.

2.3 Matching RDF Literals

The data below contains three RDF literals:

@prefix dt:   <http://example.org/datatype#> .
@prefix ns:   <http://example.org/ns#> .
@prefix :     <http://example.org/ns#> .
@prefix xsd:  <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .

:x   ns:p     "cat"@en .
:y   ns:p     "42"^^xsd:integer .
:z   ns:p     "abc"^^dt:specialDatatype .

SELECT ?v WHERE { ?v ?p "cat" }

SELECT ?v WHERE { ?v ?p "cat"@en }

2.3.2 Matching Literals with Numeric Types

Integers in a SPARQL query indicate an RDF typed literal with the datatype xsd:integer. For example: 42 is a shortened form of  "42"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#integer>.

The pattern in the following query has a solution with variable v bound to :y.

SELECT ?v WHERE { ?v ?p 42 }

Section 4.1.2 defines SPARQL shortened forms for xsd:float and xsd:double.

2.3.3 Matching Literals with Arbitrary Datatypes

The following query has a solution with variable v bound to :z. The query processor does not have to have any understanding of the values in the space of the datatype. Because the lexical form and datatype IRI both match, the literal matches.

SELECT ?v WHERE { ?v ?p "abc"^^<http://example.org/datatype#specialDatatype> }

2.4 Blank Node Labels in Query Results

Query results can contain blank nodes. Blank nodes in the example result sets in this document are written in the form "_:" followed by a blank node label.

Blank node labels are scoped to a result set (as defined in "SPARQL Query Results XML Format") or, for the CONSTRUCT query form, the result graph. Use of the same label within a result set indicates the same blank node.

@prefix foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a  foaf:name   "Alice" .
_:b  foaf:name   "Bob" .

PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?x ?name
WHERE  { ?x foaf:name ?name }

These two results have the same information: the blank nodes used to match the query are different in the two solutions. There need not be any relation between a label _:a in the result set and a blank node in the data graph with the same label.

An application writer should not expect blank node labels in a query to refer to a particular blank node in the data.

2.5 Building RDF Graphs

SPARQL has several query forms. The SELECT query form returns variable bindings. The CONSTRUCT query form returns an RDF graph. The graph is built based on a template which is used to generate RDF triples based on the results of matching the graph pattern of the query.

@prefix org:    <http://example.com/ns#> .

_:a  org:employeeName   "Alice" .
_:a  org:employeeId     12345 .

_:b  org:employeeName   "Bob" .
_:b  org:employeeId     67890 .

PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX org:    <http://example.com/ns#>

CONSTRUCT { ?x foaf:name ?name }
WHERE  { ?x org:employeeName ?name }

@prefix org: <http://example.com/ns#> .
      
_:x foaf:name "Alice" .
_:y foaf:name "Bob" .

<rdf:RDF
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
    >
  <rdf:Description>
    <foaf:name>Alice</foaf:name>
  </rdf:Description>
  <rdf:Description>
    <foaf:name>Bob</foaf:name>
  </rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>

3 RDF Term Constraints (Informative)

Graph pattern matching produces a solution sequence, where each solution has a set of bindings of variables to RDF terms. SPARQL FILTERs restrict solutions to those for which the filter expression evaluates to TRUE.

This section provides an informal introduction to SPARQL FILTERs; their semantics are defined in Section 11. Testing Values. The examples in this section share one input graph:

@prefix dc:   <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .
@prefix :     <http://example.org/book/> .
@prefix ns:   <http://example.org/ns#> .

:book1  dc:title  "SPARQL Tutorial" .
:book1  ns:price  42 .
:book2  dc:title  "The Semantic Web" .
:book2  ns:price  23 .

PREFIX  dc:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
SELECT  ?title
WHERE   { ?x dc:title ?title
          FILTER regex(?title, "^SPARQL") 
        }

PREFIX  dc:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
SELECT  ?title
WHERE   { ?x dc:title ?title
          FILTER regex(?title, "web", "i" ) 
        }

PREFIX  dc:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX  ns:  <http://example.org/ns#>
SELECT  ?title ?price
WHERE   { ?x ns:price ?price .
          FILTER (?price < 30.5)
          ?x dc:title ?title . }

By constraining the price variable, only :book2 matches the query because only :book2 has a price less than 30.5, as the filter condition requires.

3.3 Other Term Constraints

In addition to numeric types, SPARQL supports types xsd:string, xsd:boolean and xsd:dateTime (see 11.1 Operand Data Types). 11.3 Operator Mapping lists a set of test functions, including BOUND, isLITERAL and langMATCHES and accessors, including STR, LANG and DATATYPE. 11.5 Constructor Functions lists a set of XML Schema constructor functions that are in the SPARQL language to cast values from one type to another.

4 SPARQL Syntax

This section covers the syntax used by SPARQL for RDF terms and triple patterns. The full grammar is given in appendix A.

4.1 RDF Term Syntax

4.1.1 Syntax for IRIs

The IRIref production designates the set of IRIs [RFC3987]; IRIs are a generalization of URIs [RFC3986] and are fully compatible with URIs and URLs. The PrefixedName production designates a prefixed name. The mapping from a prefixed name to an IRI is described below. IRI references (relative or absolute IRIs) are designated by the IRI_REF production, where the '<' and '>' delimiters do not form part of the IRI reference. Relative IRIs match the irelative-ref reference in section 2.2 ABNF for IRI References and IRIs in [RFC3987] and are resolved to IRIs as described below.

The set of RDF terms defined in RDF Concepts and Abstract Syntax includes RDF URI references while SPARQL terms include IRIs. RDF URI references containing "<", ">", '"' (double quote), space, "{", "}", "|", "\", "^", and "`" are not IRIs. The behavior of a SPARQL query against RDF statements composed of such RDF URI references is not defined.

Prefixed names

The PREFIX keyword associates a prefix label with an IRI. A prefixed name is a prefix label and a local part, separated by a colon ":". A prefixed name is mapped to an IRI by concatenating the IRI associated with the prefix and the local part. The prefix label or the local part may be empty. Note that SPARQL local names allow leading digits while XML local names do not.

Relative IRIs

Relative IRIs are combined with base IRIs as per Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax [RFC3986] using only the basic algorithm in Section 5.2 . Neither Syntax-Based Normalization nor Scheme-Based Normalization (described in sections 6.2.2 and 6.2.3 of RFC3986) are performed. Characters additionally allowed in IRI references are treated in the same way that unreserved characters are treated in URI references, per section 6.5 of Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs) [RFC3987].

The BASE keyword defines the Base IRI used to resolve relative IRIs per RFC3986 section 5.1.1, "Base URI Embedded in Content". Section 5.1.2, "Base URI from the Encapsulating Entity" defines how the Base IRI may come from an encapsulating document, such as a SOAP envelope with an xml:base directive or a mime multipart document with a Content-Location header. The "Retrieval URI" identified in 5.1.3, Base "URI from the Retrieval URI", is the URL from which a particular SPARQL query was retrieved. If none of the above specifies the Base URI, the default Base URI (section 5.1.4, "Default Base URI") is used.

The following fragments are some of the different ways to write the same IRI:

<http://example.org/book/book1>

BASE <http://example.org/book/>
<book1>

PREFIX book: <http://example.org/book/>
book:book1

4.1.2 Syntax for Literals

The general syntax for literals is a string (enclosed in either double quotes, "...", or single quotes, '...'), with either an optional language tag (introduced by @) or an optional datatype IRI or prefixed name (introduced by ^^).

As a convenience, integers can be written directly (without quotation marks and an explicit datatype IRI) and are interpreted as typed literals of datatype xsd:integer; decimal numbers for which there is '.' in the number but no exponent are interpreted as xsd:decimal; and numbers with exponents are interpreted as xsd:double. Values of type xsd:boolean can also be written as true or false.

To facilitate writing literal values which themselves contain quotation marks or which are long and contain newline characters, SPARQL provides an additional quoting construct in which literals are enclosed in three single- or double-quotation marks.

Examples of literal syntax in SPARQL include:

• "chat"
• 'chat'@fr with language tag "fr"
• "xyz"^^<http://example.org/ns/userDatatype>
• "abc"^^appNS:appDataType
• '''The librarian said, "Perhaps you would enjoy 'War and Peace'."'''
• 1, which is the same as "1"^^xsd:integer
• 1.3, which is the same as "1.3"^^xsd:decimal
• 1.300, which is the same as "1.300"^^xsd:decimal
• 1.0e6, which is the same as "1.0e6"^^xsd:double
• true, which is the same as "true"^^xsd:boolean
• false, which is the same as "false"^^xsd:boolean

Tokens matching the productions INTEGER, DECIMAL, DOUBLE and BooleanLiteral are equivalent to a typed literal with the lexical value of the token and the corresponding datatype (xsd:integer, xsd:decimal, xsd:double, xsd:boolean).

4.1.3 Syntax for Query Variables

Query variables in SPARQL queries have global scope; use of a given variable name anywhere in a query identifies the same variable. Variables are prefixed by either "?" or "$"; the "?" or "$" is not part of the variable name. In a query, $abc and ?abc identify the same variable. The possible names for variables are given in the SPARQL grammar.

4.1.4 Syntax for Blank Nodes

Blank nodes in graph patterns act as non-distinguished variables, not as references to specific blank nodes in the data being queried.

Blank nodes are indicated by either the label form, such as "_:abc", or the abbreviated form "[]". A blank node that is used in only one place in the query syntax can be indicated with []. A unique blank node will be used to form the triple pattern. Blank node labels are written as "_:abc" for a blank node with label "abc". The same blank node label cannot be used in two different basic graph patterns in the same query.

The [:p :v] construct can be used in triple patterns. It creates a blank node label which is used as the subject of all contained predicate-object pairs. The created blank node can also be used in further triple patterns in the subject and object positions.

The following two forms

[ :p "v" ] .

[] :p "v" .

allocate a unique blank node label (here "b57") and are equivalent to writing:

_:b57 :p "v" .

This allocated blank node label can be used as the subject or object of further triple patterns. For example, as a subject:

[ :p "v" ] :q "w" .

which is equivalent to the two triples:

_:b57 :p "v" .
_:b57 :q "w" .

and as an object:

:x :q [ :p "v" ] .

which is equivalent to the two triples:

:x  :q _:b57 .
_:b57 :p "v" .

Abbreviated blank node syntax can be combined with other abbreviations for common subjects and common predicates.

  [ foaf:name  ?name ;
    foaf:mbox  <mailto:alice@example.org> ]

This is the same as writing the following basic graph pattern for some uniquely allocated blank node label, "b18":

  _:b18  foaf:name  ?name .
  _:b18  foaf:mbox  <mailto:alice@example.org> .

4.2 Syntax for Triple Patterns

Triple Patterns are written as a whitespace-separated list of a subject, predicate and object; there are abbreviated ways of writing some common triple pattern constructs.

The following examples express the same query:

PREFIX  dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
SELECT  ?title
WHERE   { <http://example.org/book/book1> dc:title ?title }  

PREFIX  dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX  : <http://example.org/book/>

SELECT  $title
WHERE   { :book1  dc:title  $title }

BASE    <http://example.org/book/>
PREFIX  dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>

SELECT  $title
WHERE   { <book1>  dc:title  ?title }

4.2.1 Predicate-Object Lists

Triple patterns with a common subject can be written so that the subject is only written once and is used for more than one triple pattern by employing the ";" notation.

    ?x  foaf:name  ?name ;
        foaf:mbox  ?mbox .

This is the same as writing the triple patterns:

    ?x  foaf:name  ?name .
    ?x  foaf:mbox  ?mbox .

4.2.2 Object Lists

If triple patterns share both subject and predicate, the objects may be separated by ",".

    ?x foaf:nick  "Alice" , "Alice_" .

is the same as writing the triple patterns:

   ?x  foaf:nick  "Alice" .
   ?x  foaf:nick  "Alice_" .

Object lists can be combined with predicate-object lists:

   ?x  foaf:name ?name ; foaf:nick  "Alice" , "Alice_" .

is equivalent to:

   ?x  foaf:name  ?name .
   ?x  foaf:nick  "Alice" .
   ?x  foaf:nick  "Alice_" .

4.2.3 RDF Collections

RDF collections can be written in triple patterns using the syntax "(element1 element2 ...)". The form "()" is an alternative for the IRI http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#nil. When used with collection elements, such as (1 ?x 3 4), triple patterns with blank nodes are allocated for the collection. The blank node at the head of the collection can be used as a subject or object in other triple patterns. The blank nodes allocated by the collection syntax do not occur elsewhere in the query.

(1 ?x 3 4) :p "w" .

is syntactic sugar for (noting that b0, b1, b2 and b3 do not occur anywhere else in the query):

    _:b0  rdf:first  1 ;
          rdf:rest   _:b1 .
    _:b1  rdf:first  ?x ;
          rdf:rest   _:b2 .
    _:b2  rdf:first  3 ;
          rdf:rest   _:b3 .
    _:b3  rdf:first  4 ;
          rdf:rest   rdf:nil .
    _:b0  :p         "w" . 

RDF collections can be nested and can involve other syntactic forms:

(1 [:p :q] ( 2 ) ) .

is syntactic sugar for:

    _:b0  rdf:first  1 ;
          rdf:rest   _:b1 .
    _:b1  rdf:first  _:b2 .
    _:b2  :p         :q .
    _:b1  rdf:rest   _:b3 .
    _:b3  rdf:first  _:b4 .
    _:b4  rdf:first  2 ;
          rdf:rest   rdf:nil .
    _:b3  rdf:rest   rdf:nil .

4.2.4 rdf:type

The keyword "a" can be used as a predicate in a triple pattern and is an alternative for the IRI  http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type. This keyword is case-sensitive.

  ?x  a  :Class1 .
  [ a :appClass ] :p "v" .

is syntactic sugar for:

  ?x    rdf:type  :Class1 .
  _:b0  rdf:type  :appClass .
  _:b0  :p        "v" .

5 Graph Patterns

SPARQL is based around graph pattern matching. More complex graph patterns can be formed by combining smaller patterns in various ways:

• Basic Graph Patterns, where a set of triple patterns must match
• Group Graph Pattern, where a set of graph patterns must all match
• Optional Graph patterns, where additional patterns may extend the solution
• Alternative Graph Pattern, where two or more possible patterns are tried
• Patterns on Named Graphs, where patterns are matched against named graphs

In this section we describe the two forms that combine patterns by conjunction: basic graph patterns, which combine triples patterns, and group graph patterns, which combine all other graph patterns.

The outer-most graph pattern in a query is called the query pattern. It is grammatically identified by GroupGraphPattern in

5.1 Basic Graph Patterns

Basic graph patterns are sets of triple patterns. SPARQL graph pattern matching is defined in terms of combining the results from matching basic graph patterns.

A sequence of triple patterns interrupted by a filter comprises a single basic graph pattern. Any graph pattern terminates a basic graph pattern.

5.1.1 Blank Node Labels

When using blank nodes of the form _:abc,  labels for blank nodes are scoped to the basic graph pattern.  A label can be used in only a single basic graph pattern in any query.

5.1.2 Extending Basic Graph Pattern Matching

SPARQL is defined for matching RDF graphs with simple entailment. SPARQL can be extended to other forms of entailment given certain conditions as described below.

5.2 Group Graph Patterns

In a SPARQL query string, a group graph pattern is delimited with braces: {}. For example, this query's query pattern is a group graph pattern of one basic graph pattern.

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name ?mbox
WHERE  {
          ?x foaf:name ?name .
          ?x foaf:mbox ?mbox .
       }

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name ?mbox
WHERE  { { ?x foaf:name ?name . }
         { ?x foaf:mbox ?mbox . }
       }

5.2.1 Empty Group Pattern

The group pattern:

{ }

matches any graph (including the empty graph) with one solution that does not bind any variables. For example:

SELECT ?x
WHERE {}

matches with one solution in which variable x is not bound.

5.2.2 Scope of Filters

A constraint, expressed by the keyword FILTER, is a restriction on solutions over the whole group in which the filter appears. The following patterns all have the same solutions:

 {  ?x foaf:name ?name .
    ?x foaf:mbox ?mbox .
    FILTER regex(?name, "Smith")
 }
  

 {  FILTER regex(?name, "Smith")
    ?x foaf:name ?name .
    ?x foaf:mbox ?mbox .
 }

 {  ?x foaf:name ?name .
    FILTER regex(?name, "Smith")
    ?x foaf:mbox ?mbox .
 }

5.2.3 Group Graph Pattern Examples

  {
    ?x foaf:name ?name .
    ?x foaf:mbox ?mbox .
  }

is a group of one basic graph pattern and that basic graph pattern consists of two triple patterns.

  {
    ?x foaf:name ?name . FILTER regex(?name, "Smith")
    ?x foaf:mbox ?mbox .
  }

is a group of one basic graph pattern and a filter, and that basic graph pattern consists of two triple patterns; the filter does not break the basic graph pattern into two basic graph patterns.

  {
    ?x foaf:name ?name .
    {}
    ?x foaf:mbox ?mbox .
  }

is a group of three elements, a basic graph pattern of one triple pattern, an empty group, and another basic graph pattern of one triple pattern.

6 Including Optional Values

Basic graph patterns allow applications to make queries where the entire query pattern must match for there to be a solution. For every solution of a query containing only group graph patterns with at least one basic graph pattern, every variable is bound to an RDF Term in a solution. However, regular, complete structures cannot be assumed in all RDF graphs. It is useful to be able to have queries that allow information to be added to the solution where the information is available, but do not reject the solution because some part of the query pattern does not match. Optional matching provides this facility: if the optional part does not match, it creates no bindings but does not eliminate the solution.

6.1 Optional Pattern Matching

Optional parts of the graph pattern may be specified syntactically with the OPTIONAL keyword applied to a graph pattern:

pattern OPTIONAL { pattern }

{ OPTIONAL { pattern } }

{ { } OPTIONAL { pattern } }

pattern OPTIONAL { pattern } OPTIONAL { pattern }

{ pattern OPTIONAL { pattern } } OPTIONAL { pattern }

@prefix foaf:       <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix rdf:        <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .

_:a  rdf:type        foaf:Person .
_:a  foaf:name       "Alice" .
_:a  foaf:mbox       <mailto:alice@example.com> .
_:a  foaf:mbox       <mailto:alice@work.example> .

_:b  rdf:type        foaf:Person .
_:b  foaf:name       "Bob" .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name ?mbox
WHERE  { ?x foaf:name  ?name .
         OPTIONAL { ?x  foaf:mbox  ?mbox }
       }

There is no value of mbox in the solution where the name is "Bob".

This query finds the names of people in the data. If there is a triple with predicate mbox and the same subject, a solution will contain the object of that triple as well. In this example, only a single triple pattern is given in the optional match part of the query but, in general, the optional part may be any graph pattern. The entire optional graph pattern must match for the optional graph pattern to affect the query solution.

6.2 Constraints in Optional Pattern Matching

Constraints can be given in an optional graph pattern. For example:

@prefix dc:   <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .
@prefix :     <http://example.org/book/> .
@prefix ns:   <http://example.org/ns#> .

:book1  dc:title  "SPARQL Tutorial" .
:book1  ns:price  42 .
:book2  dc:title  "The Semantic Web" .
:book2  ns:price  23 .

PREFIX  dc:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX  ns:  <http://example.org/ns#>
SELECT  ?title ?price
WHERE   { ?x dc:title ?title .
          OPTIONAL { ?x ns:price ?price . FILTER (?price < 30) }
        }

No price appears for the book with title "SPARQL Tutorial" because the optional graph pattern did not lead to a solution involving the variable "price".

6.3 Multiple Optional Graph Patterns

Graph patterns are defined recursively. A graph pattern may have zero or more optional graph patterns, and any part of a query pattern may have an optional part. In this example, there are two optional graph patterns.

@prefix foaf:       <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a  foaf:name       "Alice" .
_:a  foaf:homepage   <http://work.example.org/alice/> .

_:b  foaf:name       "Bob" .
_:b  foaf:mbox       <mailto:bob@work.example> .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name ?mbox ?hpage
WHERE  { ?x foaf:name  ?name .
         OPTIONAL { ?x foaf:mbox ?mbox } .
         OPTIONAL { ?x foaf:homepage ?hpage }
       }

7 Matching Alternatives

SPARQL provides a means of combining graph patterns so that one of several alternative graph patterns may match. If more than one of the alternatives matches, all the possible pattern solutions are found.

Pattern alternatives are syntactically specified with the UNION keyword.

@prefix dc10:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.0/> .
@prefix dc11:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .

_:a  dc10:title     "SPARQL Query Language Tutorial" .
_:a  dc10:creator   "Alice" .

_:b  dc11:title     "SPARQL Protocol Tutorial" .
_:b  dc11:creator   "Bob" .

_:c  dc10:title     "SPARQL" .
_:c  dc11:title     "SPARQL (updated)" .

PREFIX dc10:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.0/>
PREFIX dc11:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>

SELECT ?title
WHERE  { { ?book dc10:title  ?title } UNION { ?book dc11:title  ?title } }

PREFIX dc10:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.0/>
PREFIX dc11:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>

SELECT ?x ?y
WHERE  { { ?book dc10:title ?x } UNION { ?book dc11:title  ?y } }

PREFIX dc10:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.0/>
PREFIX dc11:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>

SELECT ?title ?author
WHERE  { { ?book dc10:title ?title .  ?book dc10:creator ?author }
         UNION
         { ?book dc11:title ?title .  ?book dc11:creator ?author }
       }

This query will only match a book if it has both a title and creator predicate from the same version of Dublin Core.

8 RDF Dataset

The RDF data model expresses information as graphs consisting of triples with subject, predicate and object. Many RDF data stores hold multiple RDF graphs and record information about each graph, allowing an application to make queries that involve information from more than one graph.

A SPARQL query is executed against an RDF Dataset which represents a collection of graphs. An RDF Dataset comprises one graph, the default graph, which does not have a name, and zero or more named graphs, where each named graph is identified by an IRI. A SPARQL query can match different parts of the query pattern against different graphs as described in section 8.3 Querying the Dataset.

An RDF Dataset may contain zero named graphs; an RDF Dataset always contains one default graph. A query does not need to involve matching the default graph; the query can just involve matching named graphs.

The graph that is used for matching a basic graph pattern is the active graph. In the previous sections, all queries have been shown executed against a single graph, the default graph of an RDF dataset as the active graph. The GRAPH keyword is used to make the active graph one of all of the named graphs in the dataset for part of the query.

8.1 Examples of RDF Datasets

The definition of RDF Dataset does not restrict the relationships of named and default graphs. Information can be repeated in different graphs; relationships between graphs can be exposed. Two useful arrangements are:

• to have information in the default graph that includes provenance information about the named graphs
• to include the information in the named graphs in the default graph as well.

# Default graph
@prefix dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .

<http://example.org/bob>    dc:publisher  "Bob" .
<http://example.org/alice>  dc:publisher  "Alice" .

# Named graph: http://example.org/bob
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a foaf:name "Bob" .
_:a foaf:mbox <mailto:bob@oldcorp.example.org> .

# Named graph: http://example.org/alice
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a foaf:name "Alice" .
_:a foaf:mbox <mailto:alice@work.example.org> .

In this example, the default graph contains the names of the publishers of two named graphs. The triples in the named graphs are not visible in the default graph in this example.

Example 2:

RDF data can be combined by the RDF merge [RDF-MT] of graphs. One possible arrangement of graphs in an RDF Dataset is to have the default graph be the RDF merge of some or all of the information in the named graphs.

In this next example, the named graphs contain the same triples as before. The RDF dataset includes an RDF merge of the named graphs in the default graph, re-labeling blank nodes to keep them distinct.

# Default graph
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:x foaf:name "Bob" .
_:x foaf:mbox <mailto:bob@oldcorp.example.org> .

_:y foaf:name "Alice" .
_:y foaf:mbox <mailto:alice@work.example.org> .

# Named graph: http://example.org/bob
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a foaf:name "Bob" .
_:a foaf:mbox <mailto:bob@oldcorp.example.org> .

# Named graph: http://example.org/alice
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a foaf:name "Alice" .
_:a foaf:mbox <mailto:alice@work.example> .

8.2 Specifying RDF Datasets

A SPARQL query may specify the dataset to be used for matching by using the FROM clause and the FROM NAMED clause to describe the RDF dataset. If a query provides such a dataset description, then it is used in place of any dataset that the query service would use if no dataset description is provided in a query. The RDF dataset may also be specified in a SPARQL protocol request, in which case the protocol description overrides any description in the query itself. A query service may refuse a query request if the dataset description is not acceptable to the service.

The FROM and FROM NAMED keywords allow a query to specify an RDF dataset by reference; they indicate that the dataset should include graphs that are obtained from representations of the resources identified by the given IRIs (i.e. the absolute form of the given IRI references). The dataset resulting from a number of FROM and FROM NAMED clauses is:

• a default graph consisting of the RDF merge of the graphs referred to in the FROM clauses, and
• a set of (IRI, graph) pairs, one from each FROM NAMED clause.

If there is no FROM clause, but there is one or more FROM NAMED clauses, then the dataset includes an empty graph for the default graph.

8.2.1 Specifying the Default Graph

Each FROM clause contains an IRI that indicates a graph to be used to form the default graph. This does not put the graph in as a named graph.

In this example, the RDF Dataset contains a single default graph and no named graphs:

# Default graph (stored at http://example.org/foaf/aliceFoaf)
@prefix  foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a  foaf:name     "Alice" .
_:a  foaf:mbox     <mailto:alice@work.example> .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT  ?name
FROM    <http://example.org/foaf/aliceFoaf>
WHERE   { ?x foaf:name ?name }

If a query provides more than one FROM clause, providing more than one IRI to indicate the default graph, then the default graph is based on the RDF merge of the graphs obtained from representations of the resources identified by the given IRIs.

8.2.2 Specifying Named Graphs

A query can supply IRIs for the named graphs in the RDF Dataset using the FROM NAMED clause. Each IRI is used to provide one named graph in the RDF Dataset. Using the same IRI in two or more FROM NAMED clauses results in one named graph with that IRI appearing in the dataset.

# Graph: http://example.org/bob
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a foaf:name "Bob" .
_:a foaf:mbox <mailto:bob@oldcorp.example.org> .

# Graph: http://example.org/alice
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a foaf:name "Alice" .
_:a foaf:mbox <mailto:alice@work.example> .

...
FROM NAMED <http://example.org/alice>
FROM NAMED <http://example.org/bob>
...

The FROM NAMED syntax suggests that the IRI identifies the corresponding graph, but the relationship between an IRI and a graph in an RDF dataset is indirect. The IRI identifies a resource, and the resource is represented by a graph (or, more precisely: by a document that serializes a graph). For further details see [WEBARCH].

8.2.3 Combining FROM and FROM NAMED

The FROM clause and FROM NAMED clause can be used in the same query.

# Default graph (stored at http://example.org/dft.ttl)
@prefix dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .

<http://example.org/bob>    dc:publisher  "Bob Hacker" .
<http://example.org/alice>  dc:publisher  "Alice Hacker" .

# Named graph: http://example.org/bob
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a foaf:name "Bob" .
_:a foaf:mbox <mailto:bob@oldcorp.example.org> .

# Named graph: http://example.org/alice
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a foaf:name "Alice" .
_:a foaf:mbox <mailto:alice@work.example.org> .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>

SELECT ?who ?g ?mbox
FROM <http://example.org/dft.ttl>
FROM NAMED <http://example.org/alice>
FROM NAMED <http://example.org/bob>
WHERE
{
   ?g dc:publisher ?who .
   GRAPH ?g { ?x foaf:mbox ?mbox }
}

The RDF Dataset for this query contains a default graph and two named graphs. The GRAPH keyword is described below.

The actions required to construct the dataset are not determined by the dataset description alone. If an IRI is given twice in a dataset description, either by using two FROM clauses, or a FROM clause and a FROM NAMED clause, then it does not assume that exactly one or exactly two attempts are made to obtain an RDF graph associated with the IRI. Therefore, no assumptions can be made about blank node identity in triples obtained from the two occurrences in the dataset description. In general, no assumptions can be made about the equivalence of the graphs.

8.3 Querying the Dataset

When querying a collection of graphs, the GRAPH keyword is used to match patterns against named graphs. GRAPH can provide an IRI to select one graph or use a variable which will range over the IRI of all the named graphs in the query's RDF dataset.

The use of GRAPH changes the active graph for matching basic graph patterns within part of the query. Outside the use of GRAPH, the default graph is matched by basic graph patterns.

The following two graphs will be used in examples:

# Named graph: http://example.org/foaf/aliceFoaf
@prefix  foaf:     <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix  rdf:      <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix  rdfs:     <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .

_:a  foaf:name     "Alice" .
_:a  foaf:mbox     <mailto:alice@work.example> .
_:a  foaf:knows    _:b .

_:b  foaf:name     "Bob" .
_:b  foaf:mbox     <mailto:bob@work.example> .
_:b  foaf:nick     "Bobby" .
_:b  rdfs:seeAlso  <http://example.org/foaf/bobFoaf> .

<http://example.org/foaf/bobFoaf>
     rdf:type      foaf:PersonalProfileDocument .

# Named graph: http://example.org/foaf/bobFoaf
@prefix  foaf:     <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix  rdf:      <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix  rdfs:     <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .

_:z  foaf:mbox     <mailto:bob@work.example> .
_:z  rdfs:seeAlso  <http://example.org/foaf/bobFoaf> .
_:z  foaf:nick     "Robert" .

<http://example.org/foaf/bobFoaf>
     rdf:type      foaf:PersonalProfileDocument .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>

SELECT ?src ?bobNick
FROM NAMED <http://example.org/foaf/aliceFoaf>
FROM NAMED <http://example.org/foaf/bobFoaf>
WHERE
  {
    GRAPH ?src
    { ?x foaf:mbox <mailto:bob@work.example> .
      ?x foaf:nick ?bobNick
    }
  }

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX data: <http://example.org/foaf/>

SELECT ?nick
FROM NAMED <http://example.org/foaf/aliceFoaf>
FROM NAMED <http://example.org/foaf/bobFoaf>
WHERE
  {
     GRAPH data:bobFoaf {
         ?x foaf:mbox <mailto:bob@work.example> .
         ?x foaf:nick ?nick }
  }

PREFIX  data:  <http://example.org/foaf/>
PREFIX  foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX  rdfs:  <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>

SELECT ?mbox ?nick ?ppd
FROM NAMED <http://example.org/foaf/aliceFoaf>
FROM NAMED <http://example.org/foaf/bobFoaf>
WHERE
{
  GRAPH data:aliceFoaf
  {
    ?alice foaf:mbox <mailto:alice@work.example> ;
           foaf:knows ?whom .
    ?whom  foaf:mbox ?mbox ;
           rdfs:seeAlso ?ppd .
    ?ppd  a foaf:PersonalProfileDocument .
  } .
  GRAPH ?ppd
  {
      ?w foaf:mbox ?mbox ;
         foaf:nick ?nick
  }
}

Any triple in Alice's FOAF file giving Bob's nick is not used to provide a nick for Bob because the pattern involving variable nick is restricted by ppd to a particular Personal Profile Document.

8.3.4 Named and Default Graphs

Query patterns can involve both the default graph and the named graphs. In this example, an aggregator has read in a Web resource on two different occasions. Each time a graph is read into the aggregator, it is given an IRI by the local system. The graphs are nearly the same but the email address for "Bob" has changed.

In this example, the default graph is being used to record the provenance information and the RDF data actually read is kept in two separate graphs, each of which is given a different IRI by the system. The RDF dataset consists of two named graphs and the information about them.

RDF Dataset:

# Default graph
@prefix dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .
@prefix g:  <tag:example.org,2005-06-06:> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .

g:graph1 dc:publisher "Bob" .
g:graph1 dc:date "2004-12-06"^^xsd:date .

g:graph2 dc:publisher "Bob" .
g:graph2 dc:date "2005-01-10"^^xsd:date .

# Graph: locally allocated IRI: tag:example.org,2005-06-06:graph1
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a foaf:name "Alice" .
_:a foaf:mbox <mailto:alice@work.example> .

_:b foaf:name "Bob" .
_:b foaf:mbox <mailto:bob@oldcorp.example.org> .

# Graph: locally allocated IRI: tag:example.org,2005-06-06:graph2
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a foaf:name "Alice" .
_:a foaf:mbox <mailto:alice@work.example> .

_:b foaf:name "Bob" .
_:b foaf:mbox <mailto:bob@newcorp.example.org> .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX dc:   <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>

SELECT ?name ?mbox ?date
WHERE
  {  ?g dc:publisher ?name ;
        dc:date ?date .
    GRAPH ?g
      { ?person foaf:name ?name ; foaf:mbox ?mbox }
  }

The IRI for the date datatype has been abbreviated in the results for clarity.

9 Solution Sequences and Modifiers

Query patterns generate an unordered collection of solutions, each solution being a partial function from variables to RDF terms. These solutions are then treated as a sequence (a solution sequence), initially in no specific order; any sequence modifiers are then applied to create another sequence. Finally, this latter sequence is used to generate one of the results of a SPARQL query form.

A solution sequence modifier is one of:

• Order modifier: put the solutions in order
• Projection modifier: choose certain variables
• Distinct modifier: ensure solutions in the sequence are unique
• Reduced modifier: permit elimination of some non-unique solutions
• Offset modifier: control where the solutions start from in the overall sequence of solutions
• Limit modifier: restrict the number of solutions

Modifiers are applied in the order given by the list above.

9.1 ORDER BY

The ORDER BY clause establishes the order of a solution sequence.

Following the ORDER BY clause is a sequence of order comparators, composed of an expression and an optional order modifier (either ASC() or DESC()). Each ordering comparator is either ascending (indicated by the ASC() modifier or by no modifier) or descending (indicated by the DESC() modifier).

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>

SELECT ?name
WHERE { ?x foaf:name ?name }
ORDER BY ?name

PREFIX     :    <http://example.org/ns#>
PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX xsd:     <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#>

SELECT ?name
WHERE { ?x foaf:name ?name ; :empId ?emp }
ORDER BY DESC(?emp)

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>

SELECT ?name
WHERE { ?x foaf:name ?name ; :empId ?emp }
ORDER BY ?name DESC(?emp)

The "<" operator (see the Operator Mapping and 11.3.1 Operator Extensibility) defines the relative order of pairs of numerics, simple literals, xsd:strings, xsd:booleans and xsd:dateTimes. Pairs of IRIs are ordered by comparing them as simple literals.

SPARQL also fixes an order between some kinds of RDF terms that would not otherwise be ordered:

1. (Lowest) no value assigned to the variable or expression in this solution.
2. Blank nodes
3. IRIs
4. RDF literals

A plain literal is lower than an RDF literal with type xsd:string of the same lexical form.

SPARQL does not define a total ordering of all possible RDF terms. Here are a few examples of pairs of terms for which the relative order is undefined:

• "a" and "a"@en_gb (a simple literal and a literal with a language tag)
• "a"@en_gb and "b"@en_gb (two literals with language tags)
• "a" and "a"^^xsd:string (a simple literal and an xsd:string)
• "a" and "1"^^xsd:integer (a simple literal and a literal with a supported data type)
• "1"^^my:integer and "2"^^my:integer (two unsupported data types)
• "1"^^xsd:integer and "2"^^my:integer (a supported data type and an unsupported data type)

This list of variable bindings is in ascending order:

The ascending order of two solutions with respect to an ordering comparator is established by substituting the solution bindings into the expressions and comparing them with the "<" operator. The descending order is the reverse of the ascending order.

The relative order of two solutions is the relative order of the two solutions with respect to the first ordering comparator in the sequence. For solutions where the substitutions of the solution bindings produce the same RDF term, the order is the relative order of the two solutions with respect to the next ordering comparator. The relative order of two solutions is undefined if no order expression evaluated for the two solutions produces distinct RDF terms.

Ordering a sequence of solutions always results in a sequence with the same number of solutions in it.

Using ORDER BY on a solution sequence for a CONSTRUCT or DESCRIBE query has no direct effect because only SELECT returns a sequence of results. Used in combination with LIMIT and OFFSET, ORDER BY can be used to return results generated from a different slice of the solution sequence. An ASK query does not include ORDER BY, LIMIT or OFFSET.

9.2 Projection

The solution sequence can be transformed into one involving only a subset of the variables. For each solution in the sequence, a new solution is formed using a specified selection of the variables using the SELECT query form.

The following example shows a query to extract just the names of people described in an RDF graph using FOAF properties.

@prefix foaf:        <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a  foaf:name       "Alice" .
_:a  foaf:mbox       <mailto:alice@work.example> .

_:b  foaf:name       "Bob" .
_:b  foaf:mbox       <mailto:bob@work.example> .

PREFIX foaf:       <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name
WHERE
 { ?x foaf:name ?name }

9.3 Duplicate Solutions

A solution sequence with no DISTINCT or REDUCED query modifier will preserve duplicate solutions.

@prefix  foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:x    foaf:name   "Alice" .
_:x    foaf:mbox   <mailto:alice@example.com> .

_:y    foaf:name   "Alice" .
_:y    foaf:mbox   <mailto:asmith@example.com> .

_:z    foaf:name   "Alice" .
_:z    foaf:mbox   <mailto:alice.smith@example.com> .

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name WHERE { ?x foaf:name ?name }

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT DISTINCT ?name WHERE { ?x foaf:name ?name }

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT REDUCED ?name WHERE { ?x foaf:name ?name }

9.4 OFFSET

OFFSET causes the solutions generated to start after the specified number of solutions. An OFFSET of zero has no effect.

Using LIMIT and OFFSET to select different subsets of the query solutions will not be useful unless the order is made predictable by using ORDER BY.

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>

SELECT  ?name
WHERE   { ?x foaf:name ?name }
ORDER BY ?name
LIMIT   5
OFFSET  10

9.5 LIMIT

The LIMIT clause puts an upper bound on the number of solutions returned. If the number of actual solutions is greater than the limit, then at most the limit number of solutions will be returned.

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>

SELECT ?name
WHERE { ?x foaf:name ?name }
LIMIT 20

A LIMIT of 0 would cause no results to be returned. A limit may not be negative.

10 Query Forms

SPARQL has four query forms. These query forms use the solutions from pattern matching to form result sets or RDF graphs. The query forms are:

SELECT

Returns all, or a subset of, the variables bound in a query pattern match.

CONSTRUCT

Returns an RDF graph constructed by substituting variables in a set of triple templates.

ASK

Returns a boolean indicating whether a query pattern matches or not.

DESCRIBE

Returns an RDF graph that describes the resources found.

The SPARQL Variable Binding Results XML Format can be used to serialize the result set from a SELECT query or the boolean result of an ASK query.

10.1 SELECT

The SELECT form of results returns variables and their bindings directly. The syntax SELECT * is an abbreviation that selects all of the variables in a query.

@prefix  foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a    foaf:name   "Alice" .
_:a    foaf:knows  _:b .
_:a    foaf:knows  _:c .

_:b    foaf:name   "Bob" .

_:c    foaf:name   "Clare" .
_:c    foaf:nick   "CT" .

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?nameX ?nameY ?nickY
WHERE
  { ?x foaf:knows ?y ;
       foaf:name ?nameX .
    ?y foaf:name ?nameY .
    OPTIONAL { ?y foaf:nick ?nickY }
  }

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<sparql xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/sparql-results#">
  <head>
    <variable name="nameX"/>
    <variable name="nameY"/>
    <variable name="nickY"/>
  </head>
  <results>
    <result>
      <binding name="nameX">
        <literal>Alice</literal>
      </binding>
      <binding name="nameY">
        <literal>Bob</literal>
      </binding>
   </result>
    <result>
      <binding name="nameX">
        <literal>Alice</literal>
      </binding>
      <binding name="nameY">
        <literal>Clare</literal>
      </binding>
      <binding name="nickY">
        <literal>CT</literal>
      </binding>
    </result>
  </results>
</sparql>

10.2 CONSTRUCT

The CONSTRUCT query form returns a single RDF graph specified by a graph template. The result is an RDF graph formed by taking each query solution in the solution sequence, substituting for the variables in the graph template, and combining the triples into a single RDF graph by set union.

If any such instantiation produces a triple containing an unbound variable or an illegal RDF construct, such as a literal in subject or predicate position, then that triple is not included in the output RDF graph. The graph template can contain triples with no variables (known as ground or explicit triples), and these also appear in the output RDF graph returned by the CONSTRUCT query form.

@prefix  foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a    foaf:name   "Alice" .
_:a    foaf:mbox   <mailto:alice@example.org> .

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX vcard:   <http://www.w3.org/2001/vcard-rdf/3.0#>
CONSTRUCT   { <http://example.org/person#Alice> vcard:FN ?name }
WHERE       { ?x foaf:name ?name }

@prefix vcard: <http://www.w3.org/2001/vcard-rdf/3.0#> .

<http://example.org/person#Alice> vcard:FN "Alice" .

10.2.1 Templates with Blank Nodes

A template can create an RDF graph containing blank nodes. The blank node labels are scoped to the template for each solution. If the same label occurs twice in a template, then there will be one blank node created for each query solution, but there will be different blank nodes for triples generated by different query solutions.

@prefix  foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a    foaf:givenname   "Alice" .
_:a    foaf:family_name "Hacker" .

_:b    foaf:firstname   "Bob" .
_:b    foaf:surname     "Hacker" .

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX vcard:   <http://www.w3.org/2001/vcard-rdf/3.0#>

CONSTRUCT { ?x  vcard:N _:v .
            _:v vcard:givenName ?gname .
            _:v vcard:familyName ?fname }
WHERE
 {
    { ?x foaf:firstname ?gname } UNION  { ?x foaf:givenname   ?gname } .
    { ?x foaf:surname   ?fname } UNION  { ?x foaf:family_name ?fname } .
 }

@prefix vcard: <http://www.w3.org/2001/vcard-rdf/3.0#> .

_:v1 vcard:N         _:x .
_:x vcard:givenName  "Alice" .
_:x vcard:familyName "Hacker" .

_:v2 vcard:N         _:z .
_:z vcard:givenName  "Bob" .
_:z vcard:familyName "Hacker" .

The use of variable x in the template, which in this example will be bound to blank nodes with labels _:a and _:b in the data, causes different blank node labels (_:v1 and _:v2) in the resulting RDF graph.

10.2.2 Accessing Graphs in the RDF Dataset

Using CONSTRUCT, it is possible to extract parts or the whole of graphs from the target RDF dataset. This first example returns the graph (if it is in the dataset) with IRI label http://example.org/aGraph; otherwise, it returns an empty graph.

CONSTRUCT { ?s ?p ?o } WHERE { GRAPH <http://example.org/aGraph> { ?s ?p ?o } . }

The access to the graph can be conditional on other information. For example, if the default graph contains metadata about the named graphs in the dataset, then a query like the following one can extract one graph based on information about the named graph:

PREFIX  dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX app: <http://example.org/ns#>
CONSTRUCT { ?s ?p ?o } WHERE
 {
   GRAPH ?g { ?s ?p ?o } .
   { ?g dc:publisher <http://www.w3.org/> } .
   { ?g dc:date ?date } .
   FILTER ( app:customDate(?date) > "2005-02-28T00:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime ) .
 }

where app:customDate identified an extension function to turn the data format into an xsd:dateTime RDF term.

10.2.3 Solution Modifiers and CONSTRUCT

The solution modifiers of a query affect the results of a CONSTRUCT query. In this example, the output graph from the CONSTRUCT template is formed from just two of the solutions from graph pattern matching. The query outputs a graph with the names of the people with the top two sites, rated by hits. The triples in the RDF graph are not ordered.

@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix site: <http://example.org/stats#> .

_:a foaf:name "Alice" .
_:a site:hits 2349 .

_:b foaf:name "Bob" .
_:b site:hits 105 .

_:c foaf:name "Eve" .
_:c site:hits 181 .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX site: <http://example.org/stats#>

CONSTRUCT { [] foaf:name ?name }
WHERE
{ [] foaf:name ?name ;
     site:hits ?hits .
}
ORDER BY desc(?hits)
LIMIT 2

@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
_:x foaf:name "Alice" .
_:y foaf:name "Eve" .

10.3 ASK

Applications can use the ASK form to test whether or not a query pattern has a solution. No information is returned about the possible query solutions, just whether or not a solution exists.

@prefix foaf:       <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a  foaf:name       "Alice" .
_:a  foaf:homepage   <http://work.example.org/alice/> .

_:b  foaf:name       "Bob" .
_:b  foaf:mbox       <mailto:bob@work.example> .

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
ASK  { ?x foaf:name  "Alice" }

yes

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<sparql xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/sparql-results#">
  <head></head>
  <results>
    <boolean>true</boolean>
  </results>
</sparql>

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
ASK  { ?x foaf:name  "Alice" ;
          foaf:mbox  <mailto:alice@work.example> }

no

10.4 DESCRIBE (Informative)

The DESCRIBE form returns a single result RDF graph containing RDF data about resources. This data is not prescribed by a SPARQL query, where the query client would need to know the structure of the RDF in the data source, but, instead, is determined by the SPARQL query processor. The query pattern is used to create a result set. The DESCRIBE form takes each of the resources identified in a solution, together with any resources directly named by IRI, and assembles a single RDF graph by taking a "description" which can come from any information available including the target RDF Dataset. The description is determined by the query service. The syntax DESCRIBE * is an abbreviation that describes all of the variables in a query.

10.4.1 Explicit IRIs

The DESCRIBE clause itself can take IRIs to identify the resources. The simplest DESCRIBE query is just an IRI in the DESCRIBE clause:

DESCRIBE <http://example.org/>

10.4.2 Identifying Resources

The resources to be described can also be taken from the bindings to a query variable in a result set. This enables description of resources whether they are identified by IRI or by blank node in the dataset:

PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
DESCRIBE ?x
WHERE    { ?x foaf:mbox <mailto:alice@org> }

The property foaf:mbox is defined as being an inverse function property in the FOAF vocabulary. If treated as such, this query will return information about at most one person. If, however, the query pattern has multiple solutions, the RDF data for each is the union of all RDF graph descriptions.

PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
DESCRIBE ?x
WHERE    { ?x foaf:name "Alice" }

More than one IRI or variable can be given:

PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
DESCRIBE ?x ?y <http://example.org/>
WHERE    {?x foaf:knows ?y}

10.4.3 Descriptions of Resources

The RDF returned is determined by the information publisher. It is the useful information the service has about a resource. It may include information about other resources: for example, the RDF data for a book may also include details about the author.

A simple query such as

PREFIX ent:  <http://org.example.com/employees#>
DESCRIBE ?x WHERE { ?x ent:employeeId "1234" }

@prefix foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix vcard:  <http://www.w3.org/2001/vcard-rdf/3.0> .
@prefix exOrg:  <http://org.example.com/employees#> .
@prefix rdf:    <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix owl:    <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#>

_:a     exOrg:employeeId    "1234" ;
       
        foaf:mbox_sha1sum   "ABCD1234" ;
        vcard:N
         [ vcard:Family       "Smith" ;
           vcard:Given        "John"  ] .

foaf:mbox_sha1sum  rdf:type  owl:InverseFunctionalProperty .

which includes the blank node closure for the vcard vocabulary vcard:N. Other possible mechanisms for deciding what information to return include Concise Bounded Descriptions [CBD].

For a vocabulary such as FOAF, where the resources are typically blank nodes, returning sufficient information to identify a node such as the InverseFunctionalProperty foaf:mbox_sha1sum as well as information like name and other details recorded would be appropriate. In the example, the match to the WHERE clause was returned, but this is not required.

11 Testing Values

SPARQL FILTERs restrict the solutions of a graph pattern match according to a given expression. Specifically, FILTERs eliminate any solutions that, when substituted into the expression, either result in an effective boolean value of false or produce an error. Effective boolean values are defined in section 11.2.2 Effective Boolean Value and errors are defined in XQuery 1.0: An XML Query Language [XQUERY] section 2.3.1, Kinds of Errors. These errors have no affect outside of FILTER evaluation.

@prefix a:          <http://www.w3.org/2000/10/annotation-ns#> .
@prefix dc:         <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .

_:a   a:annotates   <http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/> .
_:a   dc:date       "2004-12-31T19:00:00-05:00" .

_:b   a:annotates   <http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/> .
_:b   dc:date       "2004-12-31T19:01:00-05:00"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime> .

PREFIX a:      <http://www.w3.org/2000/10/annotation-ns#>
PREFIX dc:     <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX xsd:    <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#>

SELECT ?annot
WHERE { ?annot  a:annotates  <http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/> .
        ?annot  dc:date      ?date .
        FILTER ( ?date > "2005-01-01T00:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime ) }

The SPARQL operators are listed in section 11.3 and are associated with their productions in the grammar.

In addition, SPARQL provides the ability to invoke arbitrary functions, including a subset of the XPath casting functions, listed in section 11.5. These functions are invoked by name (an IRI) within a SPARQL query. For example:

... FILTER ( xsd:dateTime(?date) < xsd:dateTime("2005-01-01T00:00:00Z") ) ...

The following typographical conventions are used in this section:

• XPath operators are labeled with the prefix op:. XPath operators have no namespace; op: is a labeling convention.
• Operators introduced by this specification are indicated with the SPARQLoperator class.

11.1 Operand Data Types

SPARQL functions and operators operate on RDF terms and SPARQL variables. A subset of these functions and operators are taken from the XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Functions and Operators [FUNCOP] and have XML Schema typed value arguments and return types. RDF typed literals passed as arguments to these functions and operators are mapped to XML Schema typed values with a string value of the lexical form and an atomic datatype corresponding to the datatype IRI. The returned typed values are mapped back to RDF typed literals the same way.

SPARQL has additional operators which operate on specific subsets of RDF terms. When referring to a type, the following terms denote a typed literal with the corresponding XML Schema [XSDT] datatype IRI:

• xsd:integer
• xsd:decimal
• xsd:float
• xsd:double
• xsd:string
• xsd:boolean
• xsd:dateTime

The following terms identify additional types used in SPARQL value tests:

• numeric denotes typed literals with datatypes xsd:integer, xsd:decimal, xsd:float, and xsd:double.
• simple literal denotes a plain literal with no language tag.
• RDF term denotes the types IRI, literal, and blank node.
• variable denotes a SPARQL variable.

The following types are derived from numeric types and are valid arguments to functions and operators taking numeric arguments:

• xsd:nonPositiveInteger
• xsd:negativeInteger
• xsd:long
• xsd:int
• xsd:short
• xsd:byte
• xsd:nonNegativeInteger
• xsd:unsignedLong
• xsd:unsignedInt
• xsd:unsignedShort
• xsd:unsignedByte
• xsd:positiveInteger

SPARQL language extensions may treat additional types as being derived from XML schema data types.

11.2 Filter Evaluation

SPARQL provides a subset of the functions and operators defined by XQuery Operator Mapping. XQuery 1.0 section 2.2.3 Expression Processing describes the invocation of XPath functions. The following rules accommodate the differences in the data and execution models between XQuery and SPARQL:

• Unlike XPath/XQuery, SPARQL functions do not process node sequences. When interpreting the semantics of XPath functions, assume that each argument is a sequence of a single node.
• Functions invoked with an argument of the wrong type will produce a type error. Effective boolean value arguments (labeled "xsd:boolean (EBV)" in the operator mapping table below), are coerced to xsd:boolean using the EBV rules in section 11.2.2 .
• Apart from BOUND, all functions and operators operate on RDF Terms and will produce a type error if any arguments are unbound.
• Any expression other than logical-or (||) or logical-and (&&) that encounters an error will produce that error.
• A logical-or that encounters an error on only one branch will return TRUE if the other branch is TRUE and an error if the other branch is FALSE.
• A logical-and that encounters an error on only one branch will return an error if the other branch is TRUE and FALSE if the other branch is FALSE.
• A logical-or or logical-and that encounters errors on both branches will produce either of the errors.

The logical-and and logical-or truth table for true (T), false (F), and error (E) is as follows:

11.2.1 Invocation

SPARQL defines a syntax for invoking functions and operators on a list of arguments. These are invoked as follows:

• Argument expressions are evaluated, producing argument values. The order of argument evaluation is not defined.
• Numeric arguments are promoted as necessary to fit the expected types for that function or operator.
• The function or operator is invoked on the argument values.

If any of these steps fails, the invocation generates an error. The effects of errors are defined in Filter Evaluation.

11.2.2 Effective Boolean Value (EBV)

Effective boolean value is used to calculate the arguments to the logical functions logical-and, logical-or, and fn:not, as well as evaluate the result of a FILTER expression.

The XQuery Effective Boolean Value rules rely on the definition of XPath's fn:boolean. The following rules reflect the rules for fn:boolean applied to the argument types present in SPARQL Queries:

• The EBV of any literal whose type is xsd:boolean or numeric is false if the lexical form is not valid for that datatype (e.g. "abc"^^xsd:integer).
• If the argument is a typed literal with a datatype of xsd:boolean, the EBV is the value of that argument.
• If the argument is a plain literal or a typed literal with a datatype of xsd:string, the EBV is false if the operand value has zero length; otherwise the EBV is true.
• If the argument is a numeric type or a typed literal with a datatype derived from a numeric type, the EBV is false if the operand value is NaN or is numerically equal to zero; otherwise the EBV is true.
• All other arguments, including unbound arguments, produce a type error.

An EBV of true is represented as a typed literal with a datatype of xsd:boolean and a lexical value of "true"; an EBV of false is represented as a typed literal with a datatype of xsd:boolean and a lexical value of "false".

11.3 Operator Mapping

The SPARQL grammar identifies a set of operators (for instance, &&, *, isIRI) used to construct constraints. The following table associates each of these grammatical productions with the appropriate operands and an operator function defined by either XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Functions and Operators [FUNCOP] or the SPARQL operators specified in section 11.4. When selecting the operator definition for a given set of parameters, the definition with the most specific parameters applies. For instance, when evaluating xsd:integer = xsd:signedInt, the definition for = with two numeric parameters applies, rather than the one with two RDF terms. The table is arranged so that the upper-most viable candiate is the most specific. Operators invoked without appropriate operands result in a type error.

SPARQL follows XPath's scheme for numeric type promotions and subtype substitution for arguments to numeric operators. The XPath Operator Mapping rules for numeric operands (xsd:integer, xsd:decimal, xsd:float, xsd:double, and types derived from a numeric type) apply to SPARQL operators as well (see XML Path Language (XPath) 2.0 [XPATH20] for defintions of numeric type promotions and subtype substitution). Some of the operators are associated with nested function expressions, e.g. fn:not(op:numeric-equal(A, B)). Note that per the XPath definitions, fn:not and op:numeric-equal produce an error if their argument is an error.

The collation for fn:compare is defined by XPath and identified by http://www.w3.org/2005/xpath-functions/collation/codepoint. This collation allows for string comparison based on code point values. Codepoint string equivalence can be tested with RDF term equivalence.

xsd:boolean function arguments marked with "(EBV)" are coerced to xsd:boolean by evaluating the effective boolean value of that argument.

11.3.1 Operator Extensibility

SPARQL language extensions may provide additional associations between operators and operator functions; this amounts to adding rows to the table above. No additional operator may yield a result that replaces any result other than a type error in the semantics defined above. The consequence of this rule is that SPARQL extensions will produce at least the same solutions as an unextended implementation, and may, for some queries, produce more solutions.

Additional mappings of the '<' operator are expected to control the relative ordering of the operands, specifically, when used in an ORDER BY clause.

11.4 Operators Definitions

This section defines the operators introduced by the SPARQL Query language. The examples show the behavior of the operators as invoked by the appropriate grammatical constructs.

11.4.1 bound

 xsd:boolean   bound (variable var)

Returns true if var is bound to a value. Returns false otherwise. Variables with the value NaN or INF are considered bound.

@prefix foaf:        <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix dc:          <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .
@prefix xsd:          <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .

_:a  foaf:givenName  "Alice".

_:b  foaf:givenName  "Bob" .
_:b  dc:date         "2005-04-04T04:04:04Z"^^xsd:dateTime .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX dc:   <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX xsd:   <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#>
SELECT ?name
 WHERE { ?x foaf:givenName  ?givenName .
         OPTIONAL { ?x dc:date ?date } .
         FILTER ( bound(?date) ) }

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX dc:   <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
SELECT ?name
 WHERE { ?x foaf:givenName  ?name .
         OPTIONAL { ?x dc:date ?date } .
         FILTER (!bound(?date)) }

Because Bob's dc:date was known, "Bob" was not a solution to the query.

11.4.2 isIRI

 xsd:boolean   isIRI (RDF term term)
 xsd:boolean   isURI (RDF term term)

Returns true if term is an IRI. Returns false otherwise. isURI is an alternate spelling for the isIRI operator.

@prefix foaf:       <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a  foaf:name       "Alice".
_:a  foaf:mbox       <mailto:alice@work.example> .

_:b  foaf:name       "Bob" .
_:b  foaf:mbox       "bob@work.example" .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name ?mbox
 WHERE { ?x foaf:name  ?name ;
            foaf:mbox  ?mbox .
         FILTER isIRI(?mbox) }

11.4.3 isBlank

 xsd:boolean   isBlank (RDF term term)

Returns true if term is a blank node. Returns false otherwise.

@prefix a:          <http://www.w3.org/2000/10/annotation-ns#> .
@prefix dc:         <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .
@prefix foaf:       <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a   a:annotates   <http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/> .
_:a   dc:creator    "Alice B. Toeclips" .

_:b   a:annotates   <http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/> .
_:b   dc:creator    _:c .
_:c   foaf:given    "Bob".
_:c   foaf:family   "Smith".

PREFIX a:      <http://www.w3.org/2000/10/annotation-ns#>
PREFIX dc:     <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>

SELECT ?given ?family
 WHERE { ?annot  a:annotates  <http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/> .
         ?annot  dc:creator   ?c .
         OPTIONAL { ?c  foaf:given   ?given ; foaf:family  ?family } .
         FILTER isBlank(?c)
       }

In this example, there were two objects of foaf:knows predicates, but only one (_:c) was a blank node.

11.4.4 isLiteral

 xsd:boolean   isLiteral (RDF term term)

Returns true if term is a literal. Returns false otherwise.

@prefix foaf:       <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a  foaf:name       "Alice".
_:a  foaf:mbox       <mailto:alice@work.example> .

_:b  foaf:name       "Bob" .
_:b  foaf:mbox       "bob@work.example" .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name ?mbox
 WHERE { ?x foaf:name  ?name ;
           foaf:mbox  ?mbox .
         FILTER isLiteral(?mbox) }

11.4.5 str

 simple literal   str (literal ltrl)
 simple literal   str (IRI rsrc)

Returns the lexical form of ltrl (a literal); returns the codepoint representation of rsrc (an IRI). This is useful for examining parts of an IRI, for instance, the host-name.

@prefix foaf:       <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a  foaf:name       "Alice".
_:a  foaf:mbox       <mailto:alice@work.example> .

_:b  foaf:name       "Bob" .
_:b  foaf:mbox       <mailto:bob@home.example> .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name ?mbox
 WHERE { ?x foaf:name  ?name ;
            foaf:mbox  ?mbox .
         FILTER regex(str(?mbox), "@work.example") }

11.4.6 lang

 simple literal   lang (literal ltrl)

Returns the language tag of ltrl, if it has one. It returns "" if ltrl has no language tag. Note that the RDF data model does not include literals with an empty language tag.

@prefix foaf:       <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a  foaf:name       "Robert"@EN.
_:a  foaf:name       "Roberto"@ES.
_:a  foaf:mbox       <mailto:bob@work.example> .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name ?mbox
 WHERE { ?x foaf:name  ?name ;
            foaf:mbox  ?mbox .
         FILTER ( lang(?name) = "ES" ) }

11.4.7 datatype

 IRI   datatype (typed literal typedLit)
 IRI   datatype (simple literal simpleLit)

Returns the datatype IRI of typedLit; returns xsd:string if the parameter is a simple literal.

@prefix foaf:       <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix eg:         <http://biometrics.example/ns#> .
@prefix xsd:        <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .

_:a  foaf:name       "Alice".
_:a  eg:shoeSize     "9.5"^^xsd:float .

_:b  foaf:name       "Bob".
_:b  eg:shoeSize     "42"^^xsd:integer .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX xsd:  <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#>
PREFIX eg:   <http://biometrics.example/ns#>
SELECT ?name ?shoeSize
 WHERE { ?x foaf:name  ?name ; eg:shoeSize  ?shoeSize .
         FILTER ( datatype(?shoeSize) = xsd:integer ) }

11.4.8 logical-or

 xsd:boolean   xsd:boolean left || xsd:boolean right

Returns a logical OR of left and right. Note that logical-or operates on the effective boolean value of its arguments.

Note: see section 11.2, Filter Evaluation, for the || operator's treatment of errors.

11.4.9 logical-and

 xsd:boolean   xsd:boolean left && xsd:boolean right

Returns a logical AND of left and right. Note that logical-and operates on the effective boolean value of its arguments.

Note: see section 11.2, Filter Evaluation, for the && operator's treatment of errors.

11.4.10 RDFterm-equal

 xsd:boolean   RDF term term1 = RDF term term2

Returns TRUE if term1 and term2 are the same RDF term as defined in Resource Description Framework (RDF): Concepts and Abstract Syntax [CONCEPTS]; produces a type error if the arguments are both literal but are not the same RDF term ^*; returns FALSE otherwise. term1 and term2 are the same if any of the following is true:

• term1 and term2 are equivalent IRIs as defined in 6.4 RDF URI References of [CONCEPTS].
• term1 and term2 are equivalent literals as defined in 6.5.1 Literal Equality of [CONCEPTS].
• term1 and term2 are the same blank node as described in 6.6 Blank Nodes of [CONCEPTS].

@prefix foaf:       <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a  foaf:name       "Alice".
_:a  foaf:mbox       <mailto:alice@work.example> .

_:b  foaf:name       "Ms A.".
_:b  foaf:mbox       <mailto:alice@work.example> .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name1 ?name2
 WHERE { ?x foaf:name  ?name1 ;
            foaf:mbox  ?mbox1 .
         ?y foaf:name  ?name2 ;
            foaf:mbox  ?mbox2 .
         FILTER (?mbox1 = ?mbox2 && ?name1 != ?name2)
       }

In this query for documents that were annotated on New Year's Day (2004 or 2005), the RDF terms are not the same, but have equivalent values:

@prefix a:          <http://www.w3.org/2000/10/annotation-ns#> .
@prefix dc:         <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .

_:b   a:annotates   <http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/> .
_:b   dc:date       "2004-12-31T19:00:00-05:00"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime> .

PREFIX a:      <http://www.w3.org/2000/10/annotation-ns#>
PREFIX dc:     <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX xsd:    <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#>

SELECT ?annotates
WHERE { ?annot  a:annotates  ?annotates .
        ?annot  dc:date      ?date .
        FILTER ( ?date = xsd:dateTime("2005-01-01T00:00:00Z") ) }

^* Invoking RDFterm-equal on two typed literals tests for equivalent values. An extended implementation may have support for additional datatypes. An implementation processing a query that tests for equivalence on unsupported datatypes (and non-identical lexical form and datatype IRI) returns an error, indicating that it was unable to determine whether or not the values are equivalent. For example, an unextended implementation will produce an error when testing either "iiii"^^my:romanNumeral = "iv"^^my:romanNumeral or "iiii"^^my:romanNumeral != "iv"^^my:romanNumeral.

11.4.11 sameTerm

 xsd:boolean   sameTerm (RDF term term1, RDF term term2)

Returns TRUE if term1 and term2 are the same RDF term as defined in Resource Description Framework (RDF): Concepts and Abstract Syntax [CONCEPTS]; returns FALSE otherwise.

@prefix foaf:       <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a  foaf:name       "Alice".
_:a  foaf:mbox       <mailto:alice@work.example> .

_:b  foaf:name       "Ms A.".
_:b  foaf:mbox       <mailto:alice@work.example> .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name1 ?name2
 WHERE { ?x foaf:name  ?name1 ;
            foaf:mbox  ?mbox1 .
         ?y foaf:name  ?name2 ;
            foaf:mbox  ?mbox2 .
         FILTER (sameTerm(?mbox1, ?mbox2) && !sameTerm(?name1, ?name2))
       }

Unlike RDFterm-equal, sameTerm can be used to test for non-equivalent typed literals with unsupported data types:

@prefix :          <http://example.org/WMterms#> .
@prefix t:         <http://example.org/types#> .

_:c1  :label        "Container 1" .
_:c1  :weight       "100"^^t:kilos .
_:c1  :displacement  "100"^^t:liters .

_:c2  :label        "Container 2" .
_:c2  :weight       "100"^^t:kilos .
_:c2  :displacement  "85"^^t:liters .

_:c3  :label        "Container 3" .
_:c3  :weight       "85"^^t:kilos .
_:c3  :displacement  "85"^^t:liters .

PREFIX  :      <http://example.org/WMterms#>
PREFIX  t:     <http://example.org/types#>

SELECT ?aLabel1 ?bLabel
WHERE { ?a  :label        ?aLabel .
        ?a  :weight       ?aWeight .
        ?a  :displacement ?aDisp .

        ?b  :label        ?bLabel .
        ?b  :weight       ?bWeight .
        ?b  :displacement ?bDisp .

        FILTER ( sameTerm(?aWeight, ?bWeight) && !sameTerm(?aDisp, ?bDisp) }

The test for boxes with the same weight may also be done with the '=' operator (RDFterm-equal) as the test for "100"^^t:kilos = "85"^^t:kilos will result in an error, eliminating that potential solution.

11.4.12 langMatches

 xsd:boolean   langMatches (simple literal language-tag, simple literal language-range)

Returns true if language-tag (first argument) matches language-range (second argument) per the basic filtering scheme defined in [RFC4647] section 3.3.1. language-range is a basic language range per Matching of Language Tags [RFC4647] section 2.1. A language-range of "*" matches any non-empty language-tag string.

@prefix dc:       <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .

_:a  dc:title         "That Seventies Show"@en .
_:a  dc:title         "Cette Série des Années Soixante-dix"@fr .
_:a  dc:title         "Cette Série des Années Septante"@fr-BE .
_:b  dc:title         "Il Buono, il Bruto, il Cattivo" .

PREFIX dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
SELECT ?title
 WHERE { ?x dc:title  "That Seventies Show"@en ;
            dc:title  ?title .
         FILTER langMatches( lang(?title), "FR" ) }

PREFIX dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
SELECT ?title
 WHERE { ?x dc:title  ?title .
         FILTER langMatches( lang(?title), "*" ) }

11.4.13 regex

 xsd:boolean   regex (simple literal text, simple literal pattern)
 xsd:boolean   regex (simple literal text, simple literal pattern, simple literal flags)

Invokes the XPath fn:matches function to match text against a regular expression pattern. The regular expression language is defined in XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Functions and Operators section 7.6.1 Regular Expression Syntax [FUNCOP].

@prefix foaf:       <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a  foaf:name       "Alice".
_:b  foaf:name       "Bob" .

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name
 WHERE { ?x foaf:name  ?name
         FILTER regex(?name, "^ali", "i") }

11.5 Constructor Functions

SPARQL imports a subset of the XPath constructor functions defined in XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Functions and Operators [FUNCOP] in section 17.1 Casting from primitive types to primitive types. SPARQL constructors include all of the XPath constructors for the SPARQL operand data types plus the additional datatypes imposed by the RDF data model. Casting in SPARQL is performed by calling a constructor function for the target type on an operand of the source type.

XPath defines only the casts from one XML Schema datatype to another. The remaining casts are defined as follows:

• Casting an IRI to an xsd:string produces a typed literal with a lexical value of the codepoints comprising the IRI, and a datatype of xsd:string.
• Casting a simple literal to any XML Schema datatype is defined as the product of casting an xsd:string with the string value equal to the lexical value of the literal to the target datatype.

The table below summarizes the casting operations that are always allowed (Y), never allowed (N) and dependent on the lexical value (M). For example, a casting operation from an xsd:string (the first row) to an xsd:float (the second column) is dependent on the lexical value (M).

bool = xsd:boolean
dbl = xsd:double
flt = xsd:float
dec = xsd:decimal
int = xsd:integer
dT = xsd:dateTime
str = xsd:string
IRI = IRI
ltrl = simple literal

11.6 Extensible Value Testing

A PrimaryExpression grammar rule can be a call to an extension function named by an IRI. An extension function takes some number of RDF terms as arguments and returns an RDF term. The semantics of these functions are identified by the IRI that identifies the function.

SPARQL queries using extension functions are likely to have limited interoperability.

As an example, consider a function called func:even:

 xsd:boolean   func:even (numeric value)

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX func: <http://example.org/functions#>
SELECT ?name ?id
WHERE { ?x foaf:name  ?name ;
           func:empId   ?id .
        FILTER (func:even(?id)) }

For a second example, consider a function aGeo:distance that calculates the distance between two points, which is used here to find the places near Grenoble:

 xsd:double   aGeo:distance (numeric x1, numeric y1, numeric x2, numeric y2)

PREFIX aGeo: <http://example.org/geo#>

SELECT ?neighbor
WHERE { ?a aGeo:placeName "Grenoble" .
        ?a aGeo:location ?axLoc .
        ?a aGeo:location ?ayLoc .

        ?b aGeo:placeName ?neighbor .
        ?b aGeo:location ?bxLoc .
        ?b aGeo:location ?byLoc .

        FILTER ( aGeo:distance(?axLoc, ?ayLoc, ?bxLoc, ?byLoc) < 10 ) .
      }

An extension function might be used to test some application datatype not supported by the core SPARQL specification, it might be a transformation between datatype formats, for example into an XSD dateTime RDF term from another date format.

12 Definition of SPARQL

This section defines the correct behavior for evaluation of graph patterns and solution modifiers, given a query string and an RDF dataset. It does not imply a SPARQL implementation must use the process defined here.

The outcome of executing a SPARQL is defined by a series of steps, starting from the SPARQL query as a string, turning that string into an abstract syntax form, then turning the abstract syntax into a SPARQL abstract query comprising operators from the SPARQL algebra. This abstract query is then evaluated on an RDF dataset.

12.1 Initial Definitions

12.1.1 RDF Terms

SPARQL is defined in terms of IRIs [RFC3987]. IRIs are a subset of RDF URI References that omits spaces.

This definition of RDF Term collects together several basic notions from the RDF data model, but updated to refer to IRIs rather than RDF URI references.

12.1.2 RDF Dataset

12.1.3 Query Variables

12.1.4 Triple Patterns

This definition of Triple Pattern includes literal subjects. This has been noted by RDF-core.

"[The RDF core Working Group] noted that it is aware of no reason why literals should not
  be subjects and a future WG with a less restrictive charter may
  extend the syntaxes to allow literals as the subjects of statements."

Because RDF graphs may not contain literal subjects, any SPARQL triple pattern with a literal as subject will fail to match on any RDF graph.

12.1.5 Basic Graph Patterns

The empty graph pattern is a basic graph pattern which is the empty set.

12.1.6 Solution Mapping

A solution mapping is a mapping from a set of variables to a set of RDF terms. We use the term 'solution' where it is clear.

12.1.7 Solution Sequence Modifiers

12.2 SPARQL Query

This section defines the process of converting graph patterns and solution modifiers in a SPARQL query string into a SPARQL algebra expression.

After parsing a SPARQL query string, and applying the abbreviations for IRIs and triple patterns given in section 4, there is an abstract syntax tree composed of:

The result of converting such an abstract syntax tree is a SPARQL query that uses the following symbols in the SPARQL algebra:

Slice is the combination of OFFSET and LIMIT. mod is any one of the solution modifiers.

ToList is used where conversion from the results of graph pattern matching to sequences occurs.

12.2.1 Converting Graph Patterns

This section describes the process for translating a SPARQL graph patterns into a SPARQL algebra expression. After translating syntactic abbreviations for IRIs and triple patterns, it recursively processes syntactic forms into algebra expressions:

OPTIONAL { { ... FILTER ( ... ?x ... ) } }..

First, expand abbreviations for IRIs and triple patterns given in section 4.

The WhereClause consists of a GroupGraphPattern which is comprised of the following forms:

• TriplesBlock
• Filter
• OptionalGraphPattern
• GroupOrUnionGraphPattern
• GraphGraphPattern

Each is translated by the following procedure:

Transform(syntax form)

If the form is TriplesBlock

The result is BGP(list of triple patterns)

If the form is GroupOrUnionGraphPattern

Let A := undefined

For each element G in the GroupOrUnionGraphPattern
    If A is undefined
        A := Transform(G)
    Else
        A := Union(A, Transform(G))

The result is A

If the form is GraphGraphPattern

If the form is GRAPH IRI GroupGraphPattern
    The result is Graph(IRI, Transform(GroupGraphPattern))
If the form is GRAPH Var GroupGraphPattern
    The result is Graph(Var, Transform(GroupGraphPattern))

If the form is GroupGraphPattern

We introduce the following symbols:

• Join(Pattern, Pattern)
• LeftJoin(Pattern, Pattern, expression)
• Filter(expression, Pattern)

Let FS := the empty set
Let G := the empty pattern, Z, a basic graph pattern which is the empty set.

For each element E in the GroupGraphPattern
   If E is of the form FILTER(expr)
       FS := FS set-union {expr}
   If E is of the form OPTIONAL{P}
   Then
       Let A := Transform(P)
       If A is of the form Filter(F, A2)
           G := LeftJoin(G, A2, F)
       else 
           G := LeftJoin(G, A, true)
   If E is any other form:
      Let A := Transform(E)
      G := Join(G, A)
   
  
If FS is not empty:
  Let X := Conjunction of expressions in FS
  G := Filter(X, G)

The result is G.

Simplification step:

Groups of one graph pattern (not a filter) become join(Z, A) and can be replaced by A. The empty graph pattern Z is the identity for join:

Replace join(Z, A) by A
Replace join(A, Z) by A

12.2.2 Examples of Mapped Graph Patterns

The second form of a rewrite example is the first with empty group joins removed by the simplification step.

Example: group with a basic graph pattern consisting of a single triple pattern:

Example: group with a basic graph pattern consisting of two triple patterns:

Example: group consisting of a union of two basic graph patterns:

Example: group consisting a union of a union and a basic graph pattern:

Example: group consisting of a basic graph pattern and an optional graph pattern:

Example: group consisting of a basic graph pattern and two optional graph patterns:

Example: group consisting of a basic graph pattern and an optional graph pattern with a filter:

Example: group consisting of a union graph pattern and an optional graph pattern:

Example: group consisting of a basic graph pattern, a filter and an optional graph pattern:

12.2.3 Converting Solution Modifiers

Step 1 : ToList

ToList turns a multiset into a sequence with the same elements and cardinality. There is no implied ordering to the sequence; duplicates need not be adjacent.

Let M := ToList(Pattern)

Step 2 : ORDER BY

If the query string has an ORDER BY clause

M := OrderBy(M, list of order comparators)

Step 3 : Projection

M := Project(M, vars)

where vars is the set of variables mentioned in the SELECT clause or all named variables in the query if SELECT * used.

Step 4 : DISTINCT

If the query contains DISTINCT,

M := Distinct(M)

Step 5 : REDUCED

If the query contains REDUCED,

M := Reduced(M)

Step 6 : OFFSET and LIMIT

If the query contains "OFFSET start" or "LIMIT length"

M := Slice(M, start, length)

start defaults to 0

length defaults to (size(M)-start).

The overall abstract query is M.

12.3 Basic Graph Patterns

When matching graph patterns, the possible solutions form a multiset [multiset], also known as a bag. A multiset is an unordered collection of elements in which each element may appear more than once. It is described by a set of elements and a cardinality function giving the number of occurrences of each element from the set in the multiset.

Write μ for solution mappings and

Write μ₀ for the mapping such that dom(μ₀) is the empty set.

Write Ω₀ for the multiset consisting of exactly the empty mapping μ_0, with cardinality 1. This is the join identity.

Write μ(?x->t) for the solution mapping variable x to RDF term t : { (x, t) }

Write Ω(?x->t) for the multiset consisting of exactly μ(?x->t), that is, { { (x, t) } } with cardinality 1.

If μ₁ and μ₂ are compatible then μ₁ set-union μ₂ is also a mapping. Write merge(μ₁, μ₂) for μ₁ set-union μ₂

Write card[Ω](μ) for the cardinality of solution mapping μ in a multiset of mappings Ω.

12.3.1 SPARQL Basic Graph Pattern Matching

Basic graph patterns form the basis of SPARQL pattern matching. A basic graph pattern is matched against the active graph for that part of the query. Basic graph patterns can be instantiated by replacing both variables and blank nodes by terms, giving two notions of instance. Blank nodes are replaced using an RDF instance mapping,  σ, from blank nodes to RDF terms; variables are replaced by a solution mapping from query variables to RDF terms.

Any pattern instance mapping defines a unique solution mapping and a unique RDF instance mapping obtained by restricting it to query variables and blank nodes respectively.

If a basic graph pattern is the empty set, then the solution is Ω₀.

12.3.2 Treatment of Blank Nodes

This definition allows the solution mapping to bind a variable in a basic graph pattern, BGP, to a blank node in G. Since SPARQL treats blank node identifiers in a SPARQL Query Results XML Format document as scoped to the document, they cannot be understood as identifying nodes in the active graph of the dataset. If DS is the dataset of a query, pattern solutions are therefore understood to be not from the active graph of DS itself, but from an RDF graph, called the scoping graph, which is graph-equivalent to the active graph of DS but shares no blank nodes with DS or with BGP. The same scoping graph is used for all solutions to a single query. The scoping graph is purely a theoretical construct; in practice, the effect is obtained simply by the document scope conventions for blank node identifiers.

Since RDF blank nodes allow infinitely many redundant solutions for many patterns, there can be infinitely many pattern solutions (obtained by replacing blank nodes by different blank nodes). It is necessary, therefore, to somehow delimit the solutions for a basic graph pattern. SPARQL uses the subgraph match criterion to determine the solutions of a basic graph pattern. There is one solution for each distinct pattern instance mapping from the basic graph pattern to a subset of the active graph.

This is optimized for ease of computation rather than redundancy elimination. It allows query results to contain redundancies even when the active graph of the dataset is lean, and it allows logically equivalent datasets to yield different query results.

12.4 SPARQL Algebra

For each symbol in a SPARQL abstract query, we define an operator for evaluation. The SPARQL algebra operators of the same name are used to evaluate SPARQL abstract query nodes as described in the section "Evaluation Semantics".

It is possible that a solution mapping μ in a Join can arise in different solution mappings, μ₁and μ₂ in the multisets being joined. The cardinality of  μ is the sum of the cardinalities from all possibilities.

Diff is used internally for the definition of LeftJoin.

Written in full that is:

LeftJoin(Ω₁, Ω₂, expr) =
    { merge(μ_1, μ₂) | μ₁ in Ω₁and μ₂ in Ω₂, and μ₁ and μ₂ are compatible and expr(merge(μ₁, μ₂)) is true }
set-union
    { μ₁ | μ₁ in Ω₁and μ₂ in Ω₂, and μ₁ and μ₂ are not compatible }
set-union
    { μ₁ | μ₁ in Ω₁and μ₂ in Ω₂, and μ₁ and μ₂ are compatible and expr(merge(μ₁, μ₂)) is false }

As these are distinct, the cardinality of LeftJoin is cardinality of these individual components of the definition.

Write [x | C] for a sequence of elements where C(x) is true.

Write card[L](x) to be the cardinality of x in L.

The Reduced solution sequence modifier does not guarantee a defined cardinality.

12.5 Evaluation Semantics

We define eval(D(G), graph pattern) as the evaluation of a graph pattern with respect to a dataset D having active graph G. The active graph is initially the default graph.

D : a dataset
D(G) : D a dataset with active graph G (the one patterns match against)
D[i] : The graph with IRI i in dataset D
D[DFT] : the default graph of D
P, P1, P2 : graph patterns
L : a solution sequence

eval(D(G), Filter(F, P)) = Filter(F, eval(D(G),P))

eval(D(G), Join(P1, P2)) = Join(eval(D(G), P1), eval(D(G), P2))

eval(D(G), LeftJoin(P1, P2, F)) = LeftJoin(eval(D(G), P1), eval(D(G), P2), F)

eval(D(G), BGP) = multiset of solution mappings

eval(D(G), Union(P1,P2)) = Union(eval(D(G), P1), eval(D(G), P2))

if IRI is a graph name in D
eval(D(G), Graph(IRI,P)) = eval(D(D[IRI]), P)

if IRI is not a graph name in D
eval(D(G), Graph(IRI,P)) = the empty multiset

eval(D(G), Graph(var,P)) =
     Let R be the empty multiset
     foreach IRI i in D
        R := Union(R, Join( eval(D(D[i]), P) , Ω(?var->i) )
     the result is R

The evaluation of graph uses the SPARQL algebra union operator. The cardinality of a solution mapping is the sum of the cardinalities of that solution mapping in each join operation.

eval(D, ToList(P)) = ToList(eval(D(D[DFT]), P))

eval(D, Distict(L)) = Distinct(eval(D, L))

eval(D, Reduced(L)) = Reduced(eval(D, L))

eval(D, Project(L, vars)) = Project(eval(D, L), vars)

eval(D, OrderBy(L, condition)) = OrderBy(eval(D, L), condition)

eval(D, Slice(L, start, length)) = Slice(eval(D, L), start, length)

12.6 Extending SPARQL Basic Graph Matching

The overall SPARQL design can be used for queries which assume a more elaborate form of entailment than simple entailment, by re-writing the matching conditions for basic graph patterns. Since it is an open research problem to state such conditions in a single general form which applies to all forms of entailment and optimally eliminates needless or inappropriate redundancy, this document only gives necessary conditions which any such solution should satisfy. These will need to be extended to full definitions for each particular case.

Basic graph patterns stand in the same relation to triple patterns that RDF graphs do to RDF triples, and much of the same terminology can be applied to them. In particular, two basic graph patterns are said to be equivalent if there is a bijection M between the terms of the triple patterns that maps blank nodes to blank nodes and maps variables, literals and IRIs to themselves, such that a triple ( s, p, o ) is in the first pattern if and only if the triple ( M(s), M(p) M(o) ) is in the second. This definition extends that for RDF graph equivalence to basic graph patterns by preserving variable names across equivalent patterns.

An entailment regime specifies

1. a subset of RDF graphs called well-formed for the regime
2. an entailment relation between subsets of well-formed graphs and well-formed graphs.

Examples of entailment regimes include simple entailment [RDF-MT], RDF entailment [RDF-MT], RDFS entailment [RDF-MT], D-entailment [RDF-MT] and OWL-DL entailment [OWL-Semantics]. Of these, only OWL-DL entailment restricts the set of well-formed graphs. If E is an entailment regime then we will refer to E-entailment, E-consistency, etc, following this naming convention.

Some entailment regimes can categorize some RDF graphs as inconsistent. For example, the RDF graph:

_:x rdf:type xsd:string .
_:x rdf:type xsd:decimal .

is D-inconsistent when D contains the XSD datatypes. The effect of a query on an inconsistent graph is not covered by this specification, but must be specified by the particular SPARQL extension.

A SPARQL extension to E-entailment must satisfy the following conditions.

1 -- The scoping graph, SG, corresponding to any consistent active graph AG is uniquely specified and is E-equivalent to AG.

2 -- For any basic graph pattern BGP and pattern solution mapping P, P(BGP) is well-formed for E

3 -- For any scoping graph SG and answer set {P₁ ... P_n} for a basic graph pattern BGP, and where {BGP_{1 ....} BGP_n} is a set of basic graph patterns all equivalent to BGP, none of which share any blank nodes with any other or with SG

SG E-entails (SG union P₁(BGP₁) union ... union P_n(BGP_n))

These conditions do not fully determine the set of possible answers, since RDF allows unlimited amounts of redundancy. In addition, therefore, the following must hold.

4 -- Each SPARQL extension must provide conditions on answer sets which guarantee that every BGP and AG has a finite set of answers which is unique up to RDF graph equivalence.

Notes

(a) SG will often be graph equivalent to AG, but restricting this to E-equivalence allows some forms of normalization, for example elimination of semantic redundancies, to be applied to the source documents before querying.

(b) The construction in condition 3 ensures that any blank nodes introduced by the solution mapping are used in a way which is internally consistent with the way that blank nodes occur in SG. This ensures that blank node identifiers occur in more than one answer in an answer set only when the blank nodes so identified are indeed identical in SG. If the extension does not allow answer bindings to blank nodes, then this condition can be simplified to the condition:

SG E-entails P(BGP) for each pattern solution P.

(c) These conditions do not impose the SPARQL requirement that SG share no blank nodes with AG or BGP. In particular, it allows SG to actually be AG. This allows query protocols in which blank node identifiers retain their meaning between the query and the source document, or across multiple queries. Such protocols are not supported by the current SPARQL protocol specification, however.

(d) Since conditions 1 to 3 are only necessary conditions on answers, condition 4 allows cases where the set of legal answers can be restricted in various ways. For example, the current state of the art in OWL-DL querying focusses on the case where answer bindings to blank nodes are prohibited. We note that these conditions even allow the pathological 'mute' case where every query has an empty answer set.

(e) None of these conditions refer explicitly to instance mappings on blank nodes in BGP. For some entailment regimes, the existential interpretation of blank nodes cannot be fully captured by the existence of a single instance mapping. These conditions allow such regimes to give blank nodes in query patterns a 'fully existential' reading.

It is straightforward to show that SPARQL satisfies these conditions for the case where E is simple entailment, given that the SPARQL condition on SG is that it is graph-equivalent to AG but shares no blank nodes with AG or BGP (which satisfies the first condition). The only condition which is nontrivial is (3).

Every answer P_i is the solution mapping restriction of a SPARQL instance M_i such that M_i(BGP_i) is a subgraph of SG. Since BGP_i and SG have no blank nodes in common, the range of M_i contains no blank nodes from BGP_i; therefore, the solution mapping P_i and RDF instance mapping I_i components of M_i commute, so M_i(BGP_i) = I_i(P_i(BGP_i)). So

M₁(BGP₁) union ... union M_n(BGP_n)
= I₁(P₁(BGP₁)) union ... union I_n(P_n(BGP_n))
= [ I₁ + ... + I_n]( P₁(BGP₁) union ... union P_n(BGP_n) )

since the domains of the I_i instance mappings are all mutually exclusive. Since they are also exclusive from SG,

SG union [ I₁ + ... + I_n]( P₁(BGP₁) union ... union P_n(BGP_n) )
= [ I₁ + ... + I_n](SG union P₁(BGP₁) union ... union P_n(BGP_n) )

i.e.

SG union P₁(BGP₁) union ... union P_n(BGP_n)

has an instance which is a subgraph of SG, so is simply entailed by SG by the RDF interpolation lemma [RDF-MT].

A. SPARQL Grammar

A.1 SPARQL Query String

A SPARQL query string is a Unicode character string (c.f. section 6.1 String concepts of [CHARMOD]) in the language defined by the following grammar, starting with the Query production. For compatibility with future versions of Unicode, the characters in this string may include Unicode codepoints that are unassigned as of the date of this publication (see Identifier and Pattern Syntax [UNIID] section 4 Pattern Syntax). For productions with excluded character classes (for example [^<>'{}|^`]), the characters are excluded from the range #x0 - #x10FFFF.

A.2 Codepoint Escape Sequences

A SPARQL Query String is processed for codepoint escape sequences before parsing by the grammar defined in EBNF below. The codepoint escape sequences for a SPARQL query string are:

where HEX is a hexadecimal character

HEX ::= [0-9] | [A-F] | [a-f]

Examples:

<ab\u00E9xy>        # Codepoint 00E9 is Latin small e with acute - é
\u03B1:a            # Codepoint x03B1 is Greek small alpha - α
a\u003Ab            # a:b -- codepoint x3A is colon

Codepoint escape sequences can appear anywhere in the query string. They are processed before parsing based on the grammar rules and so may be replaced by codepoints with significance in the grammar, such as ":" marking a prefixed name.

These escape sequences are not included in the grammar below. Only escape sequences for characters that would be legal at that point in the grammar may be given. For example, the variable "?x\u0020y" is not legal (\u0020 is a space and is not permitted in a variable name).

A.3 White Space

White space (production WS) is used to separate two terminals which would otherwise be (mis-)recognized as one terminal. Rule names below in capitals indicate where white space is significant; these form a possible choice of terminals for constructing a SPARQL parser. White space is significant in strings.

For example:

?a<?b&&?c>?d

is the token sequence variable '?a', an IRI '<?b&&?c>', and variable '?d', not a expression involving the operator '&&' connextting two expression using '<' (less than) and '>' (greater than).

A.4 Comments

Comments in SPARQL queries take the form of '#', outside an IRI or string, and continue to the end of line (marked by characters 0x0D or 0x0A) or end of file if there is no end of line after the comment marker. Comments are treated as white space.

A.5 IRI References

Text matched by the IRI_REF production and PrefixedName (after prefix expansion) production, after escape processing, must be conform to the generic syntax of IRI references in section 2.2 of RFC 3987 "ABNF for IRI References and IRIs" [RFC3987]. For example, the IRI_REF <abc#def> may occur in a SPARQL query string, but the IRI_REF <abc##def> must not.

Base IRIs declared with the BASE keyword must be absolute IRIs. A prefix declared with the PREFIX keyword may not be re-declared in the same query. See section 2.1.1, Syntax of IRI Terms, for a description of BASE and PREFIX.

A.6 Blank Node Labels

The same blank node label may not be used in two separate basic graph patterns with a single query.

A.7 Escape sequences in strings

In addition to the codepoint escape sequences, the following escape sequences any string production (e.g. STRING_LITERAL1, STRING_LITERAL2, STRING_LITERAL_LONG1, STRING_LITERAL_LONG2):

Examples:

"abc\n"
"xy\rz"
'xy\tz'

A.8 Grammar

The EBNF notation used in the grammar is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1 [XML11] section 6 Notation.

Keywords are matched in a case-insensitive manner with the exception of the keyword 'a' which, in line with Turtle and N3, is used in place of the IRI rdf:type (in full, http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type).

Keywords:

Escape sequences are case sensitive.

When choosing a rule to match, the longest match is chosen.

Notes:

1. The SPARQL grammar is LL(1) when the rules with uppercased names are used as terminals.
2. In signed numbers, no white space is allowed between the sign and the number. The AdditiveExpression grammar rule allows for this by covering the the two cases of an expression followed by a signed number. These produce an addition or substraction of the unsigned number as appropriate.

Some grammar files for some commonly used tools are available here.

B. Conformance

See appendix A SPARQL Grammar regarding conformance of SPARQL Query strings, and section 10 Query Forms for conformance of query results. See appendix E. Internet Media Type for conformance to the application/sparql-query media type.

This specification is intended for use in conjunction with the SPARQL Protocol [SPROT] and the SPARQL Query Results XML Format [RESULTS]. See those specifications for their conformance criteria.

Note that the SPARQL protocol describes an abstract interface as well as a network protocol, and the abstract interface may apply to APIs as well as network interfaces.

C. Security Considerations (Informative)

SPARQL queries using FROM, FROM NAMED, or GRAPH may cause the specified URI to be dereferenced. This may cause additional use of network, disk or CPU resources along with associated secondary issues such as denial of service. The security issues of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax [RFC3986] Section 7 should be considered. In addition, the contents of file: URIs can in some cases be accessed, processed and returned as results, providing unintended access to local resources.

The SPARQL language permits extensions, which will have their own security implications.

Multiple IRIs may have the same appearance. Characters in different scripts may look similar (a Cyrillic "о" may appear similar to a Latin "o"). A character followed by combining characters may have the same visual representation as another character (LATIN SMALL LETTER E followed by COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT has the same visual representation as LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE). Users of SPARQL must take care to construct queries with IRIs that match the IRIs in the data. Further information about matching of similar characters can be found in Unicode Security Considerations [UNISEC] and Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs) [RFC3987] Section 8.

D. Internet Media Type, File Extension and Macintosh File Type

contact:

Eric Prud'hommeaux

See also:

How to Register a Media Type for a W3C Specification

Internet Media Type registration, consistency of use
TAG Finding 3 June 2002 (Revised 4 September 2002)

The Internet Media Type / MIME Type for the SPARQL Query Language is "application/sparql-query".

It is recommended that sparql query files have the extension ".rq" (all lowercase) on all platforms.

It is recommended that sparql query files stored on Macintosh HFS file systems be given a file type of "TEXT".

Type name:

application

Subtype name:

sparql-query

Required parameters:

None

Optional parameters:

None

Encoding considerations:

The syntax of the SPARQL Query Language is expressed over code points in Unicode [UNICODE]. The encoding is always UTF-8 [RFC3629].

Unicode code points may also be expressed using an \uXXXX (U+0 to U+FFFF) or \UXXXXXXXX syntax (for U+10000 onwards) where X is a hexadecimal digit [0-9A-F]

Security considerations:

See SPARQL Query appendix C, Security Considerations as well as RFC 3629 [RFC3629] section 7, Security Considerations.

Interoperability considerations:

There are no known interoperability issues.

Published specification:

This specification.

Applications which use this media type:

No known applications currently use this media type.

Additional information:

Magic number(s):

A SPARQL query may have the string 'PREFIX' (case independent) near the beginning of the document.

File extension(s):

".rq"

Base URI:

The SPARQL 'BASE <IRIref>' term can change the current base URI for relative IRIrefs in the query language that are used sequentially later in the document.

Macintosh file type code(s):

"TEXT"

Person & email address to contact for further information:

public-rdf-dawg-comments@w3.org

Intended usage:

COMMON

Restrictions on usage:

None

Author/Change controller:

The SPARQL specification is a work product of the World Wide Web Consortium's RDF Data Access Working Group. The W3C has change control over these specifications.

F. Acknowledgements (Informative)

The SPARQL RDF Query Language is a product of the whole of the W3C RDF Data Access Working Group, and our thanks for discussions, comments and reviews go to all present and past members.

In addition, we have had comments and discussions with many people through the working group comments list. All comments go to making a better document. Andy would also like to particularly thank Jorge Peérez, Geoff Chappell, Bob MacGregor, Yosi Scharf and Richard Newman for exploring specific issues related to SPARQL. Eric would like to acknowledge the invaluable help of Björn Höhrmann.