Basic syntax

• | Symbol | Meaning | Example | | PREFIX | Declares prefix shortcuts | PREFIX dbr: <http://dbpedia.org/resource/> |
  | SELECT | Query result clause | SELECT ?country ?capital | | ?x | Variable x | SELECT ?country ?capital | | {} | Set of query patterns | {?country dbo:capital ?capital .} | | . | End of triple pattern | ?country dbo:capital ?capital . | | ; | Next triple pattern has the same subject | ?country a dbo:Country**;** | | | | | | | | dbo:capital ?capital . | | FILTER | Condition for a variable | FILTER ( LANG(?capital) = "en" ) | | LANG() | Returns the language tag of a literal. | FILTER ( LANG(?capital**)** = "en" ) | | # | Comment. This line is ignored by SPARQL engines. | #All countries with their population and capital | |ORDER BY | Sort the results by | ORDER BY ?population | | DESC() | Sort in descending order | ORDER BY DESC(?population) |
  | LIMIT | Limits the number of results | LIMIT 20 |

Variables

• A query variable is marked by the use of either "?" or "$".
• The"?" or "$" is not part of the variable name.
• In a query, $x and ?x identify the same variable.
• All queries in this wiki use only "?".
• Allowed characters are [a-z], [A-Z], [0-9], _, · and diacritics. Hyphens are not allowed.
• When using several words, it is recommended to put them either in CamelCase (example: NumberOfItems) or use underscore (Number_Of_Items).

Brackets

• Curly { } (aka “braces”)
  • Query conditions: triple patterns, filters, bindings, etc {?x a foaf:Person}
• Round ( ) (aka “parentheses”)
  • Mostly for function arguments FILTER ( LANG(?capital) = "en" )
• Angled <>
  • Full URIs in triple patterns or prefix declarations PREFIX dcat: <http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#>
• Sqaure [ ]
  • A blank node or a set of triples with blank node as a subject

• [1] [[Turtle]] compared to SPARQL (see in the SPARQL spec) id:: 61ef8d42-f778-4f31-95f3-1b76bd13f743
  • The SPARQL 1.1 Query LanguageF (SPARQL) uses a Turtle style syntax for its TriplesBlock production. This production differs from the Turtle language in that:
    • SPARQL permits RDF Literals as the subject of RDF triples.
    • SPARQL permits variables (?name or $name) in any part of the triple of the form.
    • Turtle allows prefix and base declarations anywhere outside of a triple. In SPARQL, they are only allowed in the Prologue (at the start of the SPARQL query).
    • SPARQL uses case insensitive keywords, except for ‘a’. Turtle’s @prefix and @base declarations are case sensitive, the SPARQL dervied PREFIX and BASE are case insensitive.
    • ‘true’ and ‘false’ are case insensitive in SPARQL and case sensitive in Turtle. TrUe is not a valid boolean value in Turtle.