Re: Sorting

 > Is it the case then that Sparql will not include an ORDER BY or
 > similar clause? If not, then would it be possible to elaborate
 > why?

We adopted a LIMIT requirement over an objection (details below), but 
sorting has never had a critical mass of support. It competes with 
streaming results (http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/DataAccess/UseCases#r3.12 
). We haven't discussed any designs for sorting.

(btw... except for things required in our charter, I don't think we're 
obliged to say why we're not doing things...)

You're welcome to elaborate on why you think it's important/required. 
Use cases are particularly welcome, especially use cases that argue for 
handling sorting in SPARQL rather than in a downstream component or 
client or XSLT engine or the like.

[[[
The group discussed "3.10 Result Limits". The synergy with sorting was 
noted. After discussion of the implementation costs of sorting and the 
trade-off between client and server compute power per user, opinions 
differed on the merit and/or necessity of limits without sorting. 
Library systems and other interactive systems were suggested as 
supporting use cases, as were mobile scenarios. AndyS suggested a 
public comment from Chris Wilper supports this requirement, as do 
limitations of JDBC drivers. RobS reported experience with a 3+ tier 
architecture where sorting and limits were handled outside the query 
system. RobS remained unconvinced that limit was essential. DanC raised 
the possibility of demoting it to an objective, but that was not 
supported by a critical mass, so we RESOLVED to adopt requirement "3.10 
Result Limits" over the objection of RobS of Network Inference.
]]]
   -- http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/DataAccess/ftf2#req


-- 
Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/

Received on Tuesday, 8 March 2005 21:08:17 UTC