Comment on SPARQL 1.1 CSV Results

Hi All

There is a problem with this document in that it does not state how and if the serialization should handle empty strings.

The spec states that terms are serialized as if the STR() function had been applied and that there should be no distinguishing syntax for term type, thus the serialization should only surround a literal in quotes when that literal contains characters that cannot be serialized bare in CSV.

Also the spec states that an unbound term is serialized as an empty field

What this means is that the spec requires you to serialize an empty string in the same way you serialize an unbound term.  Thus if you were to parse the serialization you would have to assume that it was an unbound term.

I am aware that the CSV serialization is intentionally lossy by design so I'd like to suggest that the working group do one of the following:

1 - Have the document state that this case (empty string vs unbound term) is a known ambiguity in the serialization
2 - Require an empty string to be serialized as ""

Option 2 would be my preference

Regards,

Rob Vesse
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