Example 11: Namespaces

A namespace is that portion of a URI that preceeds the last #, /, or : character, inclusive. The remainder of a URI is called the localname. For example, with respect to the URI http://example.org/people/alice, the namespace is http://example.org/people/ and the localname is alice. When writing SPARQL queries, it is convenient to define prefixes or nicknames for the namespaces, so that abbreviated URIs can be specified. For example, if we define ex to be a nickname for http://example.org/people/, then the string ex:alice is a recognized abbreviation for http://example.org/people/alice. This abbreviation is called a qname (qualified name).

In the SPARQL query discussed in this chapter we see two qnames, rdf:type and ex:alice. Ordinarily, we would expect to see PREFIX declarations in SPARQL that define namespaces for the rdf and ex nicknames. However, the connection and query machinery can do that job for you. The mapping of prefixes to namespaces includes the built-in prefixes rdf, rdfs, xsd, and owl. Hence, we can write rdf:type in a SPARQL query, and the system already knows its meaning. In the case of the ex prefix, we need to instruct it. The setNamespace() method of the connection object registers a new namespace.

Note

It is legal, although not recommended, to redefine the built-in prefixes (RDF, XSD etc…).

We start by opening a connection and creating two URIs. Note how createURI() allows us to compose URIs from namespaces and local names.

conn = connect()
exns = "http://example.org/people/"
alice = conn.createURI(namespace=exns, localname="alice")
person = conn.createURI(namespace=exns, localname="Person")

Now we can assert Alice’s RDF:TYPE triple.

from franz.openrdf.vocabulary.rdf import RDF

conn.add(alice, RDF.TYPE, person)

Now we register the exns namespace with the connection object, so we can use it in a SPARQL query. The query looks for triples that have rdf:type in the predicate position, and ex:Person in the object position.

conn.setNamespace('ex', exns)
conn.executeTupleQuery("""
    SELECT ?s ?p ?o WHERE {
        ?s ?p ?o .
        FILTER (?p = rdf:type && ?o = ex:Person)
    }""", output=True)

The output shows the single triple that we expected to find. This demonstrates that the qnames in the SPARQL query successfully matched the fully-expanded URIs in the triple. Note that the namespace prefix is also used in the table below.

-----------------------------------
| s        | p        | o         |
===================================
| ex:alice | rdf:type | ex:Person |
-----------------------------------

It should be mentioned here that the prefix of a namespace can be an empty string. This allows the resulting qnames to be very concise and readable:

conn.setNamespace('', 'http://a-long-and-often-used-namespace/')
conn.executeUpdate('insert data { :this :looks :nice }')
conn.executeTupleQuery('select ?s { ?s :looks :nice }',
                       output=True)
---------
| s     |
=========
| :this |
---------