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SPARQLing data.world

Introduction

SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle") is a powerful query language used to retrieve, modify and make the best use out of linked data. It is recognized as one of the key technologies of the semantic web due to its flexibility as well as the ease of joining complex data structures and detecting intricate patterns in data. It is also the query language upon which the data.world platform is based.

The purpose of this document is to enable technical users who are familiar with SPARQL to use the full range of SPARQL functionality on data.world.

While SPARQL provides a lovely language with which to query your data, you need to know more than basic SPARQL in order to maximize your value from data.world. data.world SPARQL significantly extends the functionality of SPARQL with:

  • Specialized access to your data with named graph patterns

  • Extensions to the SPARQL language itself:

    • DIAGNOSE

    • WITH

    • Query-as-graph

  • Dozens of extension aggregations and functions with which to manipulate your data

New to SPARQL?

If you are new to SPARQL, here are some resources to help you get started:

What is covered

In this guide we will cover the following:

  • The basics of how queries work in SPARQL

  • The file types that can be queried and how RDF is generated for them (including how IRIs are generated, as appropriate)

  • Querying from virtualized data sources

  • Refining data access

  • data.world extensions to SPARQL

  • data.world enhancements to your data