Re: Representing NULL in RDF

Zitat von Steve Harris <steve.harris@garlik.com>:

> On 2013-06-09, at 20:36, Pat Hayes <phayes@ihmc.us> wrote:
> ...
>>>> - value uknown (it should be there but the source doesn't know it)
>>> Actually that piece of information could be written down in a RDF  
>>> Schema graph like this:
>>
>> It can be written far more simply in RDF just by using a blank node:
>>
>> :a :p _:x .
>
> Yes, a blank node is probably the closest thing to a SQL NULL in RDF.
>
> Though it would be safer/clearer to write:
>
> :a :p [] .

We are not talking about serializations. ;)


> To emphasise the (NULL = NULL) → FALSE behaviour, which is key to  
> the uses of NULL in SQL.

Excellent point!


> However, the convention in RDF is just to omit the property for that  
> subject where something is unknown - as others have said.

Jan asked about how to distinguish between his four cases which are  
indeed slightly different to each other.

Omitting a triple has therefore a different quality than telling the  
existence of the property of this very subject. So, there is more  
information (existence) than when omitting the whole triple.
-- 
Sven R. Kunze
Chemnitz University of Technology
Department of Computer Science
Distributed and Self-organizing Systems Group
Straße der Nationen 62
D-09107 Chemnitz
Germany
E-Mail: sven.kunze@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de
WWW: http://vsr.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de/people/kunze
Phone: +49 371 531 33882

Received on Monday, 10 June 2013 18:57:24 UTC