.. _intro_to_using_sparql:
====================
Querying with SPARQL
====================
Run a Query
^^^^^^^^^^^
The RDFLib comes with an implementation of the `SPARQL 1.1 Query
`_ and `SPARQL 1.1 Update
`_ languages.
Queries can be evaluated against a graph with the
:meth:`rdflib.graph.Graph.query` method, and updates with
:meth:`rdflib.graph.Graph.update`.
The query method returns a :class:`rdflib.query.Result` instance. For
SELECT queries, iterating over this return
:class:`rdflib.query.ResultRow` instances, each containing a set of
variable bindings. For CONSTRUCT/DESCRIBE queries, iterating over the
result object gives the triples. For ASK queries, iterating will yield
the single boolean answer, or evaluating the result object in a
boolean-context (i.e. ``bool(result)``)
Continuing the example...
.. code-block:: python
import rdflib
g = rdflib.Graph()
# ... add some triples to g somehow ...
g.parse("some_foaf_file.rdf")
qres = g.query(
"""SELECT DISTINCT ?aname ?bname
WHERE {
?a foaf:knows ?b .
?a foaf:name ?aname .
?b foaf:name ?bname .
}""")
for row in qres:
print("%s knows %s" % row)
The results are tuples of values in the same order as your SELECT
arguments. Alternatively, the values can be accessed by variable
name, either as attributes, or as items: ``row.b`` and ``row["b"]`` is
equivalent.
.. code-block:: text
Timothy Berners-Lee knows Edd Dumbill
Timothy Berners-Lee knows Jennifer Golbeck
Timothy Berners-Lee knows Nicholas Gibbins
Timothy Berners-Lee knows Nigel Shadbolt
Dan Brickley knows binzac
Timothy Berners-Lee knows Eric Miller
Drew Perttula knows David McClosky
Timothy Berners-Lee knows Dan Connolly
...
As an alternative to using ``PREFIX`` in the SPARQL query, namespace
bindings can be passed in with the ``initNs`` kwarg, see
:doc:`namespaces_and_bindings`.
Variables can also be pre-bound, using ``initBindings`` kwarg can be
used to pass in a ``dict`` of initial bindings, this is particularly
useful for prepared queries, as described below.
Prepared Queries
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RDFLib lets you *prepare* queries before execution, this saves
re-parsing and translating the query into SPARQL Algebra each time.
The method :meth:`rdflib.plugins.sparql.prepareQuery` takes a query as
a string and will return a :class:`rdflib.plugins.sparql.sparql.Query`
object. This can then be passed to the
:meth:`rdflib.graph.Graph.query` method.
The ``initBindings`` kwarg can be used to pass in a ``dict`` of
initial bindings:
.. code-block:: python
q = prepareQuery(
'SELECT ?s WHERE { ?person foaf:knows ?s .}',
initNs = { "foaf": FOAF })
g = rdflib.Graph()
g.load("foaf.rdf")
tim = rdflib.URIRef("http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i")
for row in g.query(q, initBindings={'person': tim}):
print row
Custom Evaluation Functions
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For experts, it is possible to override how bits of SPARQL algebra are
evaluated. By using the `setuptools entry-point
`_
``rdf.plugins.sparqleval``, or simply adding to an entry to
:data:`rdflib.plugins.sparql.CUSTOM_EVALS`, a custom function can be
registered. The function will be called for each algebra component and
may raise ``NotImplementedError`` to indicate that this part should be
handled by the default implementation.
See :file:`examples/custom_eval.py`