Learning SPARQL

by Bob DuCharme

Get hands-on experience with SPARQL, the RDF query language that's become a key component of the semantic web. With this concise book, you will learn how to use the latest version of this W3C standard to retrieve and manipulate the increasing amount of public and private data available via SPARQL endpoints. Several open source and commercial tools already support SPARQL, and this introduction gets you started right away. Begin with how to write and run simple SPARQL 1.1 queries, then dive into the language's powerful features and capabilities for manipulating the data you retrieve. Learn what you need to know to add to, update, and delete data in RDF datasets, and give web applications access to this data.

Genres: Technology, Computer Science, Nonfiction, Artificial Intelligence, Web, Programming, Technical

235 pages, Paperback

First published July 14, 2011

Reviews

[Kai Weber]

The good thing about this book is that you can dive into the Sparql technology even without any prior training in RDF or other Semantic Web technologies. It is well suitable for readers who've stuck to the relational database storage paradigm and it opens up a new world of possibilities beyond object-relational mapping. The Sparql language looks a bit like a blend of SQL and Prolog, and the RDF triple store concept that is underlying Sparql is elaborated in a brief and concise way. Familiarity with the namespace concept of XML is helpful.
The cookbook chapter in the end could work as a reference section, but most of the solutions presented here are a little trivial. I would have preferred an outlook chapter or something more sophisticated in the end of the book. But overall: A good entry point into Sparql as well as RDF.

[Will]

Too fire

[Ash Moran]

I've needed to learn SPARQL for a current project and I've found this an extremely helpful guide. It's very clearly written, easy to follow, and has many useful examples. While it's mainly about the SPARQL query language, it takes a few interesting excursions into other semantic web / linked data topics such as RDFS, OWL and common vocabularies / ontologies in use. It's a little slow going in places as he often spells out what seems to be the bleeding obvious, but my impression is that the book is designed to be accessible to all moderately technical people and not just experienced developers.

[Б. Долгорсүрэн]

I had to read this for learning SPARQL for RDF data processing.

[Lokesh Dewani]

Great Book for learning SPARQL....and gives a good command over the language and information on RDF

[Kurt Cagle]

First a qualification - I've known and respected Bob DuCharme for a couple of years, and so was rather delighted to find that he'd written a book on a topic that I have become heavily invested in for some time. The book was well worth the read.

While the book is not that thick, he manages to cover a lot of material in a clear, easy-to-read prose that nonetheless illustrates a great number of concepts, from how RDF itself works and the utility of OWL and OWL2 to the various tools that SPARQL provides for querying semantic triple databases. From data types and functions to various SPARQL patterns, he provides a compelling introduction into the topic, gives enough information to research further, and provides a number of insights that are useful even to those who have worked with SPARQL for a while.

He also includes a solid introduction into the SPARQL 1.1 UPDATE specification, which, in my opinion, makes SPARQL far more important not only as a query language but a general data access language. Given this is a relatively recent document, it's inclusion should make this a must read for anyone who is familiar with the older SPARQL spec but hasn't had a chance to take advantage of these major new tools.

[Conlon Michael]

A very good book on SPARQL. I learned SPARQL (important for a project I led for years).

SPARQL is a query language for graph-based data. It is a cousin to SQL, a query language for table-based data.

SPARQL is easier to learn that SQL and DuCharme is a good writer and teacher.

I conversed with the author and he was generous and polite.

Recommended

[Albert]

A comprehensive introduction to SPARQL tools, queries, and endpoints. The examples are illustrative and well-thought out. Some of the Fuseki material is stale already, but there is plenty here to incorporate SPARLQ into linked-data web solutions.

[André Hagenbruch]

Despite a few flaws in copyediting this is both a concise tutorial and a great use case oriented reference book. Highly recommended!

[Dan Carey]

An indispensable book for those of us dealing with semantic technologies. I finished this one just in time for the 2nd edition (which I will be buying).

[Scott]

Great on SPARQL period and also has some great material for understanding RDF and triple-stores in general.

[Delhi Irc]

Location: ND6 IRC
Accession No: DL028205