ICS-FORTH & Univ.

of Crete Spring 2013

An Introduction to SPARQL

V. CHRISTOPHIDES
Department of Computer Science
University of Crete
ICS - FORTH, Heraklion, Crete 1

ICS-FORTH & Univ. of Crete Spring 2013

Introduction

SPARQL is the W3C candidate recommendation graph-matching query
language for RDF
The acronym stands for SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language

A SPARQL query consists of three parts:
Pattern matching: optional, union, nesting, filtering.
Solution modifiers: projection, distinct, order, limit, offset.
Output part: construction of new triples, -

In addition to the core language, W3C has also defined:
The SPARQL Protocol for RDF specification: it defines the remote
protocol for issuing SPARQL queries and receiving the results
The SPARQL Query Results XML Format specification: it defines an
XML document format for representing the results of SPARQL queries
The SPARQL Federated Query: it extends SPARQL for executing
queries distributed over different SPARQL endpoints
The SPARQL Service Description: it is a method for discovering and a
vocabulary for describing SPARQL services 2

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What are the Design Challenges in SPARQL?

SPARQL has to take into account the
distinctive features of RDF:
Should be able to extract
information from interconnected
RDF graphs
Should be consistent with the open-
world semantics of RDF
Should offer the possibility of
adding optional information if RDF Store
present
Should be able to properly interpret
RDF graphs with a vocabulary with
predefined semantics
Should offer some functionalities for
navigating in an RDF graph 3

ICS-FORTH & Univ. of Crete Spring 2013

SPARQL in a Nutshell

C. Gutierrez – Foundations of RDF Databases - ESWC 2008 4

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SPARQL Query Forms

The SELECT query form returns variable bindings

The CONSTRUCT query form returns an RDF graph specified by a

graph template

The ASK query form can be used to test whether or not a graph pattern
has a solution
No information is returned about the possible query solutions, just
whether or not a solution exists

There is also a DESCRIBE query form which is not important and

SPARQL does not prescribe any semantics for it

ICS-FORTH & Univ. of Crete Spring 2013

Solution Sequences and Modifiers

Graph patterns in a WHERE clause generate an unordered collection of
solutions, each solution being a mapping i.e.,
a partial function from variables to RDF terms (URIs, Literals, Bnodes),
aka variable binding

These solutions are then treated as a sequence initially in no specific order
which is used to generate the results of a SPARQL query

A solution sequence modifier can be applied to create another sequence:
Order modifier: put the solutions in some given order
Projection modifier: choose certain variables. This is done using the
SELECT clause
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 6

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SPARQL Graph Patterns

To define graph patterns, we must first define triple patterns:
A triple pattern is like an RDF triple, but with the option of a variable in
place of RDF terms (i.e., IRIs, literals or blank nodes) in the subject,
predicate or object positions
Example: <http://example.org/book/book1>
<http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/title> ?title .
?title is a variable

We can distinguish the following kinds of graph patterns:
 Group graph patterns are the more general case of patterns build out of:
 Basic graph patterns
 Optional graph patterns
 Alternative graph patterns
 Filter conditions
 Patterns on named graphs
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Basic Graph Patterns

A basic graph pattern (BGP) is a set of triple patterns written as a

sequence of triple patterns (separated by a period if necessary)
A BGP should be understood as the conjunction of its triple patterns

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

Note: There is no keyword for conjunction (e.g., AND) in SPARQL

Conjunctive triple patterns or BGPs are simply juxtaposed and then
enclosed in { and } to form a group graph pattern

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Group Graph Patterns

A group graph pattern is a set of graph patterns delimited with braces { }
{ P1 P2 }
{} is the empty group graph pattern

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

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

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

The above three group graph patterns are equivalent:

When a group graph pattern consists only of triple patterns or only of
BGPs, these patterns are interpreted conjunctively, and the group
graph pattern is equivalent to the corresponding set of triple patterns 9

ICS-FORTH & Univ. of Crete Spring 2013

GGP Example

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> .

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

Result:
?name ?mbox
“Peter Goodguy" <mailto:peter@example.org>

"Johnny Lee Outlaw” <mailto:jlow@example.com>

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Optional Graph Patterns (Outer-Joins)

Regular, complete structures cannot be assumed in all RDF graphs

It is useful to have queries that allow information to be added to the
answer where the information is available, but do not reject the answer
because some part of the query pattern does not match
Optional graph pattern matching provides this facility: if the optional
part does not match, it creates no bindings but does not eliminate the
solution

Optional parts of a complex graph pattern that we are trying to compute
may be specified by starting with a graph pattern P1 and then applying
the keyword OPTIONAL to another graph pattern P2 that follows it:
{P1 OPTIONAL { P2 }}
The group graph pattern following a keyword OPTIONAL can of
course be as complex as possible e.g., it can contain a FILTER

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OGP Example

Data:
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntaxns#>.
_: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" .

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

Result: "Alice" <mailto:alice@example.com>
"Alice" <mailto:alice@work.example>
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"Bob"

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Alternative Patterns (Disjunction)

SPARQL provides a means of forming the disjunction of graph patterns

with the keyword UNION so that one of several alternative graph patterns
may match
If more than one of the alternatives match, all the possible pattern
solutions are found

Alternative graph patterns that are combined by UNION are processed

independently of each other and the results are combined using (set-
theoretic) union
 {P1} UNION {P2}

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AGP Example

Data:
@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)" .

Query:
PREFIX dc10: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.0/>
PREFIX dc11: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
SELECT ?title ?title
WHERE {{?book dc10:title ?title}
“SPARQL Protocol Tutorial"
UNION
{?book dc11:title ?title}"SPARQL“
} "SPARQL (updated)“

Result: "SPARQL Query Language Tutorial"
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AGP Example (cont’d)

Query:
PREFIX dc10: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.0/>
PREFIX dc11: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
SELECT ?author ?title
WHERE {{?book dc10:title ?title. ?book dc10:creator ?author.}
UNION
{?book dc11:title ?title. ?book dc11:creator ?author.}
}

Result:
?author ?title
"Bob" “SPARQL Protocol Tutorial"
"Alice" "SPARQL Query Language Tutorial"

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Queries with RDF Literals

We have to be careful when matching RDF literals

Data:
@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 .

The queries SELECT ?v WHERE { ?v ?p "cat" } and
SELECT ?v WHERE { ?v ?p "cat"@en } have different results

Only the second one finds a matching triple and returns:
?v
<http://example.org/ns#x> 16

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Filter Expressions

The FILTER construct restricts variable bindings to those for which the
filter expression evaluates to TRUE by considering
equality = among variables and RDF terms
unary predicate bound
Boolean combinations (∧, ∨, ¬)

Group graph patterns are used to restrict the scope of FILTER conditions

A FILTER condition is a restriction on solutions over the whole group in
which the filter appears
P1 . P2 . FILTER (... boolean expression...)

We can have multiple FILTERs in a group graph pattern
They are equivalent to a single filter with conjoined filter conditions

FILTERs can be very complex Boolean conditions !
The regular expression language used by regex is defined in XQuery
1.0 and XPath 2.0 17

ICS-FORTH & Univ. of Crete Spring 2013

Constraints on Variables

Data:
@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 .

Query:
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 . } ?title ?price

Result: “The Semantic Web" 23 18

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Blank Nodes in Query Results

Data:
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
_:a foaf:name "Alice" .
_:b foaf:name "Bob" .

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

Result:
?x ?name
_:c "Alice"
_:d "Bob"

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Blank Nodes in Query Results (cont’d)

Data:
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
_:a foaf:name "Alice" .
_:b foaf:name "Bob" .
_:a foaf:knows _:b .
_:b foaf:knows _:a .

Query:
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?x ?name1 ?y ?name2
WHERE { ?x foaf:name ?name1 . ?y foaf:name ?name2 .
?x foaf:knows ?y }

Result: ?x ?name ?y ?name
_:c "Alice" _:d "Bob"
_:d "Bob" _:c "Alice" 20

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Blank Nodes in Graph Patterns

Blank nodes in graph patterns act as variables, not as references to

specific blank nodes in the data being queried

Blank nodes cannot appear in a SELECT clause

The scope of blank node is the BGP in which it appears

A blank node which appears more than once in the same BGP
stands for the same RDF term

The same blank node is not allowed to appear in two BGPs of the same
query

Important: there is no reason to use blank nodes in a query; you can

get the same functionality using variables 21

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Blank Nodes in Graph Patterns Example

Data:
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
_:a foaf:name "Alice" .
_:b foaf:name "Bob" .
_:a foaf:knows _:b .
_:b foaf:knows _:a .

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

Result: ?name
"Alice"
"Bob" 22

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Blank Nodes in Graph Patterns Example

Data:
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
_:a foaf:name "Alice" .
_:b foaf:name "Bob" .
_:a foaf:knows _:b .
_:b foaf:knows _:a .

Query:
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name1 ?name2
WHERE { _:z foaf:name ?name1 . _:v foaf:name ?name2 .
_:z foaf:knows _:v } ?name1 ?name2

Result: "Alice" "Bob"
"Bob" "Alice" 23

ICS-FORTH & Univ. of Crete Spring 2013

A Complete SPARQL Example

PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-
rdf-syntax-
syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-
<http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX oo: <http://purl.org/openorg/> PREFIX DECLARATIONS
SELECT ?name ?expertise RESULT CLAUSE
FROM <http://data.uoc.gr/> DATASET CLAUSE
WHERE {
?person foaf:name ?name . ; foaf:familyName ?surname .
?person rdf:type foaf:Person .
?person foaf:title ?title . FILTER regex(?title, "^Prof")
OPTIONAL {
?person oo:availableToCommentOn ?expertiseURI .
?expertiseURI rdfs:label ?expertise
}
} QUERY CLAUSE
ORDER BY ?surname SOLUTION MODIFIERS

Give me a list of names of professors in University of Crete

and their expertise (if available), in order of their surname 24

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SPARQL in a Nutshell
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-
rdf-syntax-
syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-
Shortcuts <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf
for URIs -schema#>
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX oo: <http://purl.org/openorg/> PREFIX DECLARATIONS
SELECT
Which?name ?expertise
results do you want? RESULT CLAUSE
Where
FROM should we look?
<http://data.uoc.gr/> DATASET CLAUSE
WHERE {
?person foaf:name ?name ; foaf:familyName ?surname .
?person rdf:type foaf:Person .
?person foaf:title ?title . FILTER regex(?title, "^Prof")
What are
OPTIONAL { you looking for?
?person oo:availableToCommentOn ?expertiseURI .
?expertiseURI rdfs:label ?expertise
}
} QUERY CLAUSE
ORDER
HowBYshould
?surname
results be ordered/split? SOLUTION MODIFIERS

Give me a list of names of professors in University of Crete

and their expertise (if available), in order of their surname 25

ICS-FORTH & Univ. of Crete Spring 2013

A Complete SPARQL Example

PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-
rdf-syntax-
syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-
<http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX oo: <http://purl.org/openorg/> PREFIX DECLARATIONS
SELECT ?name ?expertise RESULT CLAUSE
FROM <http://data.uoc.gr/> DATASET CLAUSE
WHERE {
?person foaf:name ?name ; foaf:familyName ?surname .
?person rdf:type foaf:Person .
?person foaf:title ?title . FILTER regex(?title, "^Prof")
OPTIONAL {
?person oo:availableToCommentOn ?expertiseURI .
?expertiseURI rdfs:label ?expertise
}
} QUERY CLAUSE
ORDER BY ?surname SOLUTION MODIFIERS

Give me a list of names of professors in University of Crete

and their expertise (if available), in order of their surname 26

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Prefix Declarations
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-
rdf-syntax-
syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-
<http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX oo: <http://purl.org/openorg/> PREFIX DECLARATIONS

foaf:Person ⇔ <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person>

Use http://prefix.cc/ …

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A Complete SPARQL Example

PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-
rdf-syntax-
syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-
<http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX oo: <http://purl.org/openorg/> PREFIX DECLARATIONS
SELECT ?name ?expertise RESULT CLAUSE
FROM <http://data.uoc.gr/> DATASET CLAUSE
WHERE {
?person foaf:name ?name ; foaf:familyName ?surname .
?person rdf:type foaf:Person .
?person foaf:title ?title . FILTER regex(?title, "^Prof")
OPTIONAL {
?person oo:availableToCommentOn ?expertiseURI .
?expertiseURI rdfs:label ?expertise
}
} QUERY CLAUSE
ORDER BY ?surname SOLUTION MODIFIERS

Give me a list of names of professors in University of Crete

and their expertise (if available), in order of their surname 28

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Solution Modifiers
ORDER BY ?surname SOLUTION MODIFIERS

Order output results by surname (as you probably guessed)

+also+
LIMIT
Only return 10 results
ORDER BY ?surname LIMIT 10 SOLUTION MODIFIERS

OFFSET
Return results 20‒30
ORDER BY ?surname LIMIT 10 OFFSET 20 SOLUTION MODIFIERS

Give me a list of names of professors in University of Crete

and their expertise (if available), in order of their surname 29

ICS-FORTH & Univ. of Crete Spring 2013

OFFSET and LIMIT clauses

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

The OFFSET clause 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 is not useful unless the order is made predictable by using
ORDER BY

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Removing Duplicates

By default, SPARQL query results may contain duplicates (so the result
of a SPARQL query is a bag not a set)

The modifier DISTINCT enforces that no duplicates are included in the

query results

The modifier REDUCED permits the elimination of duplicates (the

implementation decides what to do e.g., based on optimization issues)

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Building Blocks for SPARQL Semantics

Given an RDF graph the evaluation of a triple pattern t is the set of
mappings that
make t to match the graph
have as domain the variables in t

Two mappings are compatible if they agree in their shared variables

µ2 and µ3 are not compatible ()

A mapping satisfies
 ?X = c if it gives the value c to variable ?X
 ?X =?Y if it gives the same value to ?X and ?Y
 bound(?X) if it is defined for ?X 32

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SPARQL Algebraic Operators

SPARQL algebra defines 5 operators on mapping bags
Unary ops:
π (projection),
σ (selection, also called filtering)
Binary ops:
U (union)
 (join)
 (optional)

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ICS-FORTH & Univ. of Crete Spring 2013

SPARQL Algebraic Operators

SPARQL algebra defines 5 operators on mapping bags
Unary ops:
π (projection),
σ (selection, also called filtering)
Binary ops:
U (union)
 (join)
 (optional)
Ω π?x (Ω)
?x ?y
a b ?x
a c a µ1 card(µ1) = 2
d e d µ2 card(µ2) = 1 34

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SPARQL Algebraic Operators

SPARQL algebra defines 5 operators on mapping bags
Unary ops:
π (projection),
σ (selection, also called filtering)
Binary ops:
U (union)
 (join)
 (optional)
σ?x=a (Ω)
Ω ?x ?y
a b ?x ?y
µ1 card(µ1) = 1
a c a b
a c µ2 card(µ2) = 1
d e 35

ICS-FORTH & Univ. of Crete Spring 2013

SPARQL Algebraic Operators

SPARQL algebra defines 5 operators on mapping bags
Unary ops:
π (projection),
σ (selection, also called filtering)
Binary ops:
U (union)
 (join)
 (optional)

Ω1
?x ?y Ω1 U Ω2
?z is unbound in µ1
a b µ1 ?x ?y ?z
?x ?z a b - µ1
Ω2
c d µ2 c - d µ2 36

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SPARQL Algebraic Operators

SPARQL algebra defines 5 operators on mapping bags
Unary ops:
π (projection),
σ (selection, also called filtering)
Binary ops: µ and µ’ are compatible (µ ~ µ’),
U (union) if they agree
on their common variables
 (join)
µ1 ~ µ4, µ3 ~ µ4
 (optional) µ2 ~ µ4
Ω1 ?x Ω1 Ω2
?y Ω2 ?y ?z
a b µ1 b f µ4 ?x ?y ?z
c d µ2 a b f µ5 = µ1 U µ4
e - µ3 e b f µ6 = µ3 U µ4 37

ICS-FORTH & Univ. of Crete Spring 2013

SPARQL Algebraic Operators

SPARQL algebra defines 5 operators on mapping bags
Unary ops:
π (projection),
σ (selection, also called filtering)
Binary ops:
U (union) (P1 OPTIONAL P2) can be written as
 (join) (P1 AND P2) UNION (P1 MINUS P2)

 (optional)
(a, b, f): Ω1 Ω2
Ω1 Ω2 (c, d, -): Ω1 Ω2
Ω1 ?x ?y
Ω2 ?x ?y ?z
a b µ1 ?y ?z a b f µ4 = µ1 U µ3
c d µ2 b f µ3 c d - µ2 38

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Few SPARQL Algebraic Equivalences

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Negation in SPARQL

SPARQL offers two forms of negation:

The Boolean “not” (!) operator in FILTER conditions
A limited form of negation as failure which can be simulated using
OPTIONAL, FILTER and !bound

SPARQL 1.0 does not offer an explicit algebraic difference operator but
this operator is implicit in the definition of the OPTIONAL operator
SPARQL 1.1. offers more non-monotonic operators

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Negation in FILTER conditions

Data:
@prefix ns: <http://example.org/ns#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
_:a ns:p "42"^^xsd:integer .

Query:
PREFIX ns: <http://example.org/ns#>
SELECT ?v
WHERE {
?v ns:p ?y . FILTER (?y != 42)
}

Result:
?V

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The Operator bound

The expression bound(var) is one of the expressions allowed in

FILTER conditions

Given a mapping to which FILTER is applied, bound(var) evaluates

to true if var is bound to a value in that mapping and false otherwise

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Example

Data:
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix ex: <http://example.org/schema/> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
_:a foaf:givenName "Alice“ .
_:b foaf:givenName "Bob" .
_:b ex:age “30"^^xsd:integer .
_:m foaf:givenName “Mike" .
_:m ex:age “65"^^xsd:integer .

Query: Find the names of people with name and age
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX ex: <http://example.org/schema/>
SELECT ?name
WHERE { ?x foaf:givenName ?name . ?x ex:age ?age }

Result: ?name
“Bob"
“Mike" 43

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Examples with Negation

Query: Find people with a name but no expressed age:
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX ex: <http://example.org/schema/>
SELECT ?name
WHERE { ?x foaf:givenName ?name .
OPTIONAL { ?x ex:age ?age }
FILTER (!bound(?age))
}

Result: ? name
“Alice"

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Examples with Negation (cont’d)

Query: Find the names of people with name but no expressed age or
age less than 60 years
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX ex: <http://example.org/schema/>
SELECT ?name
WHERE { ?x foaf:givenName ?name .
OPTIONAL { ?x ex:age ?age .
FILTER(?age >= 60) } .
FILTER (!bound(?age))
}

Result: ?name
“Alice"

“Bob"

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Examples with Negation (cont’d)

Note that the OPTIONAL pattern in the previous query does not generate
bindings in the following two cases:
There is no ex:age property for ?x (e.g., when ?x=_a)
There is an ex:age property for ?x but its value is less than 60 (e.g.,
when ?x=_b)

These two cases are then selected for output by the FILTER condition
that uses !bound

In the previous examples where we used

{ P1 OPTIONAL P2 } FILTER(!bound(?x) }
to express negation as failure, the variable ?x appeared in graph pattern
P2 but not in graph pattern P1 otherwise we cannot have the desired
effect
this simple idea might not work in more complicated cases

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Closed World Assumption (CWA) and Negation as
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Failure (NF)

We saw that it is possible to simulate a non-monotonic construct like
negation as failure through SPARQL language constructs

However, SPARQL makes no assumption to interpret statements in an
RDF graph using negation as failure or some other non-monotonic
assumption (e.g., Closed World Assumption)
SPARQL, but also RDF(S) make the Open World Assumption i.e.
things that are not known to be true or false are assumed to be possible

Monotonicity: Let KB be a set of FOL formulas and φ and θ two
arbitrary FOL formulas
If KB entails φ then KB union { θ } entails φ as well

CWA and NF result in non-monotonicity
If A is a ground atomic formula in FOL, then the CWA says:
If KB does not entail A, then assume not A to be entailed
If A is a ground atomic formula in FOL, then negation as failure says:
If you cannot prove A from the KB, then assume not A has been
proven
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OWA vs. CWA in RDF

DB: tall(John)
DB: tall(John)

Query: ?-tall(John)
Query: ?-tall(John)
Answer: yes
Answer: yes

Query: ?-tall(Mike)
Answer: no (using the CWA or
Query: ?-tall(Mike)
negation as failure) Answer: I don’t know (using the OWA)

Update DB with tall(Mike)

Query: ?-tall(Mike)
Answer: yes

In general, the OWA is the most natural assumption to make in RDF since
we are writing incomplete Web resource descriptions and we expect that
these resource descriptions will be extended and reused by us or others
later on

But even in the context of the Web, there are many examples where the
CWA is more appropriate (e.g., when we describe the schedule of a
course we give the times the course takes place; the course does not take
place at any other time)

It would be nice to have facilities to say what assumption to make in each
case 48

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New Features of SPARQL 1.1

New query features:

Aggregate functions
Subqueries
Negation (explicit)
Expressions in the SELECT clause
 Property Paths
Assignment
A short form for CONSTRUCT
An expanded set of functions and operators

Updates

Federated queries

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Aggregates

Aggregate functions can be used to do computations over groups of

solutions that satisfy certain graph patterns
By default a solution set consists of a single group containing all
solutions
The following functions are allowed: COUNT, SUM, MIN, MAX,
AVG, GROUP_CONCAT, and SAMPLE

Grouping is specified using the GROUP BY clause

The HAVING clause can also be used to constrain grouped solutions in

the same way FILTER constrains ungrouped ones

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Example: Aggregates

Data:
@prefix : <http://books.example/> .
:org1 :affiliates :auth1, :auth2 .
:auth1 :writesBook :book1, :book2 .
:book1 :price 9 .
:book2 :price 5 .
:auth2 :writesBook :book3 .
:book3 :price 7 .
:org2 :affiliates :auth3 .
:auth3 :writesBook :book4 .
:book4 :price 7 .

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Example (cont’d)

Query: Find the total price of books written by authors affiliated with
some organization: output organization id and total price only if the total
price is greater than 10
PREFIX : <http://books.example/>
SELECT (?org SUM(?lprice) AS ?totalPrice)
WHERE { ?org :affiliates ?auth .
?auth :writesBook ?book .
?book :price ?lprice . }
GROUP BY ?org
HAVING (SUM(?lprice) > 10)

Result: ?org ?totalPrice

<http://books.example/org1> 21
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Subqueries

Subqueries are a way to embed SPARQL queries inside other queries to
allow the expression of requests that are not possible otherwise
Subqueries are evaluated first and then the outer query is applied to
their results
Only variables projected out of the subquery (i.e., appearing in its
SELECT clause) will be visible to the outer query

Consider graph patterns P1 , P2 and P3 :
P1 .
{SELECT
WHERE {P2}
}
P3 .
Join the results of the subquery with the results of solving P1 and P3

Subqueries are useful when combining limits and aggregates with other
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Example: Subqueries

Data:
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
@prefix : <http://sales.com/> .
:sale1 :company :c1; :amount 7500^^xsd:integer; :year "2011".
:sale2 :company :c1; :amount 17000^^xsd:integer;:year "2011".
:sale3 :company :c1; :amount 5500^^xsd:integer; :year "2012".
:sale4 :company :c1; :amount 7000^^xsd:integer; :year "2012".
:sale5 :company :c2; :amount 3000^^xsd:integer; :year "2011".
:sale6 :company :c2; :amount 4000^^xsd:integer; :year "2011".
:sale7 :company :c2; :amount 5000^^xsd:integer; :year "2012".
:sale8 :company :c2; :amount 6000^^xsd:integer; :year "2012".

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Example (cont’d)

Query: Find companies that increased their sales from 2011 to 2012 and
the amount of increase
PREFIX : <http://sales.com/>
SELECT ?c ((?total2012 - ?total2011) AS ?increase)
WHERE {
{ SELECT ?c (SUM(?m) AS ?total2012)
WHERE { ?s a :Sale ; :company ?c ;
:amount ?m ; :year: "2012" . }
GROUP BY ?c } .
{ SELECT ?c (SUM(?m) AS ?total2011)
WHERE { ?s a :Sale ; :company ?c ;
:amount ?m ; :year: "2011" . }
GROUP BY ?c } .
FILTER (?total2012 > ?total2011)
}
?c ?increase

Result:
<http://sales.com/c2> "4000"^^<http://www.w3.or
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Negation

In SPARQL 1.1 we have two ways to express negation:
The algebraic operator MINUS (is the same as the difference
operation of the SPARQL algebraic semantics) used for removing
matches based on the evaluation of two query patterns
P1 MINUS P2 returns all the mappings in P1 that are incompatible
with all mappings in P2 or they have disjoin domains (different vars)
The operator NOT EXISTS in FILTER expressions used for testing
whether a pattern exists in the data, given the bindings already
determined by the query pattern
P1 NOT EXISTS P2 returns true if the pattern P2 do not matches the
data after substituting all mappings in P1 (shared vars)

Proposition: (P1 MINUS P2) is equivalent to:
P1 OPT (P2 AND (?X1, ?X2, ?X3)) FILTER ￢bound(?X1),
where ?X1, ?X2, ?X3 are mentioned neither in P1 nor in P2

Unlike MINUS, NOT EXISTS should only be in a FILTER expression
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Example: MINUS

Data:
@prefix : <http://example/> .
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
:alice foaf:givenName "Alice" ; foaf:familyName "Smith" .
:bob foaf:givenName "Bob" ; foaf:familyName "Jones" .
:carol foaf:givenName "Carol" ; foaf:familyName "Smith" .

Query: Find all persons that do not have given name “Bob”
PREFIX : <http://example/>
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT DISTINCT ?s
WHERE { ?s ?p ?o .
MINUS { ?s foaf:givenName "Bob" . } }

Result: ?s
<http://example/carol>
<http://example/alice> 57

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Example: NOT EXISTS

Data:
@prefix :<http://example/> .
@prefix rdf:<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>.
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
:alice rdf:type foaf:Person .
:alice foaf:name "Alice" .
:bob rdf:type foaf:Person .

Query: Find persons for whom we have no name
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?person
WHERE { ?person rdf:type foaf:Person .
FILTER NOT EXISTS { ?person foaf:name ?name } }

Result:
?person
<http://example/bob>

This is what we expressed earlier with OPTIONAL, FILTER and !bound 58

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NOT EXISTS vs MINUS

MINUS and NOT EXISTS do not always return the same result if they are
not applied with care

Example:
PREFIX : <http://example/>
SELECT *
WHERE { ?s ?p ?o FILTER NOT EXISTS { :a :b :c } }
evaluates to an empty result set since there is no mapping set for P2
PREFIX : <http://example/>
SELECT *
WHERE { ?s ?p ?o MINUS { :a :b :c } }
evaluates to result set with one query solution because there is no match of
bindings and so no solutions are eliminated
s p o
<http://example/a> <http://example/b> <http://example/c> 59

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NOT EXISTS vs MINUS

@prefix : <http://example/> .
:a :b :c .
SELECT *
WHERE { ?s ?p ?o FILTER NOT EXISTS { ?x ?y ?z } }
evaluates to an empty result set because { ?x ?y ?z } matches given
any ?s ?p ?o, so NOT EXISTS { ?x ?y ?z } eliminates any solution
SELECT *
WHERE { ?s ?p ?o MINUS { ?x ?y ?z } }
since there is no shared variable between the first part (?s ?p ?o) and
the second (?x ?y ?z) no bindings are eliminated, so the result is
s p o
<http://example/a> <http://example/b> <http://example/c>
See more examples
http://www.openlinksw.com/uda/wiki/main/Main/VirtTipsAndTricksGuideSPARQLNOTEXISTS
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Example: Expressions in the SELECT clause

Data:
@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 .
:book1 ns:discount 0.2 .
:book2 dc:title "The Semantic Web" .
:book2 ns:price 23 .
:book2 ns:discount 0.25 .

Query: Find all book titles and their discounted price
PREFIX dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX ns: <http://example.org/ns#>
SELECT ?title (?p*(1-?discount) AS ?price)
WHERE { ?x ns:price ?p .
?title ?price
?x dc:title ?title .
?x ns:discount ?discount} "The Semantic Web" 17.25

Result: "SPARQL Tutorial" 33.6 61

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Example: Expressions in the SELECT clause (cont’d)

Query: Find all book titles, their full price and their discounted price
PREFIX dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX ns: <http://example.org/ns#>
SELECT ?title (?p AS ?fullPrice)
(?fullPrice*(1-?discount) AS ?customerPrice)
WHERE { ?x ns:price ?p .
?x dc:title ?title .
?x ns:discount ?discount }

?title ?fullPrice ?customerPrice

Result: "The Semantic Web" 23 17.25

"SPARQL Tutorial" 42 33.6

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Property Paths

SPARQL 1.1 allows us to specify property paths in the place of a
predicate in a triple pattern

Property paths use regular expressions to enable us to write
sophisticated queries that traverse an RDF graph

Property paths allow for the more concise expression of some
queries plus the ability to refer to paths of arbitrary length

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Examples

The / path operator denotes sequence

Query: Find the name of any people that Alice knows
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?x ?name
WHERE { ?x foaf:mbox <mailto:alice@example> .
?x foaf:knows/foaf:name ?name . }

Query: Find the name of people that Alice knows that are 2
"foaf:knows" links away
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?x ?name
WHERE { ?x foaf:mbox <mailto:alice@example> .
?x foaf:knows/foaf:knows/foaf:name ?name . }
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Example (cont’d)

The same query can be written equivalently without property path

expressions as follows:
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?x ?name
WHERE { ?x foaf:mbox <mailto:alice@example> .
?x foaf:knows ?a1 .
?a1 foaf:knows ?a2 .
?a2 foaf:name ?name . }

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Examples

The + operator denotes one or more occurrences of foaf:knows

Query: Find all the people :x connects to via the foaf:knows
relationship (using a path with an arbitrary length)
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX : <http://example/>
SELECT ?person
WHERE { :x foaf:knows+ ?person }

The * operator denotes zero or more occurrences of rdfs:subClassOf

Query: Find all types, including supertypes ,of each resource in the
dataset
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
SELECT ?x ?type
WHERE { ?x rdf:type/rdfs:subClassOf* ?type } 66

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SPARQL Endpoints

SPARQL query processing service

Supports the SPARQL protocol

Issuing a SPARQL query is an HTTP GET request with parameter query
URL-encoded string

Example: with the SPARQL query
GET /sparql?query=PREFIX+rd... HTTP/1.1
Host: dbpedia.org
User-agent: my-sparql-client/0.1

Several Linked Data sets exposed via SPARQL endpoint: Send your
query, receive the result!
 DBpedia http://dbpedia.org/sparql
 Musicbrainzhttp://dbtune.org/musicbrainz/sparql
 World Factbook http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/factbook/snorql/
 LinkedMDB http://data.linkedmdb.org/sparql
 DBLP http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/dblp/snorql/ 67

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SPARQL Endpoints Query Result Formats

For SELECT and ASK queries: XML, JSON, plain text

For CONSTRUCT and DESCRIBE: RDF/XML, Turtle, ...

How to request?
ACCEPT header
GET /sparql?query=PREFIX+rd... HTTP/1.1
Host: dbpedia.org
User-agent: my-sparql-client/0.1
Accept: application/sparql-results+json
Non-standard alternative: parameter out
GET /sparql?out=json&query=... HTTP/1.1
Host: dbpedia.org
User-agent: my-sparql-client/0.1
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Summary SPARQL Query Syntax

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Summary of SPARQL Filters

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Readings

The SPARQL syntax & semantics can be found in the W3C specification
www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-query (1.1) www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query (1.0)

For formal semantics and expressive power of SPARQL read:
 J.Perez, M. Arenas and C. Gutierrez. Semantics and Complexity of SPARQL.
ACM Transactions on Database Systems, 34(3), Article 16 (45 pages), 2009
 M. Arenas and J. Perez. Querying Semantic Web Data with SPARQL: State of
the Art and Research Perspectives. In Proc. of PODS, Athens, Greece, pages
305-316, 2011
 A. Mallea, M. Arenas, A. Hogan and A. Polleres. On Blank Nodes. Proc. of
ISWC 2011

Check out the SPARQL 1.1 Query Results Formats
 JSON Format http://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-results-json/
 CSV and TSV Formats http://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-results-csv-tsv/
 XML Format http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-XMLres/

See www.w3.org/TR/2012/WD-sparql11-query-20120724/#propertypaths
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Acknowledgements

Manolis Koubarakis “An Introduction to SPARQL: Part I and II” lecture
in course “Knowledge Technologies” http://cgi.di.uoa.gr/~pms509/

Dieter Fensel, Federico Facca and Ioan Toma “Storage and Querying”
lecture in course “Semantic Web” http://teaching-
wiki.sti2.at/index.php/Semantic_Web

Andreas Harth, Aidan Hogan, Spyros Kotoulas, Jacopo Urbani “Session
2a: SPARQL/Scalable RDF Indexing” Tutorial Series on Scalable
Integration and Processing of Linked Data http://sild.cs.vu.nl/

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