Re: RDF lists/arrays and n-ary relations [was Re: OWL and RDF lists]

A few comments . . .

On 9/23/22 03:46, Pierre-Antoine Champin wrote:
 >> [ Example of implementing an array using a named graph . . . ]
 >> . . .
 > That's intriguing :)
 >
 > But I'm not sure exactly what you gain here... Querying
 > lists in SPARQL would be hardly easier as what it is today...

Apologies, I erred in describing it as syntactic sugar.  I should have
described it as a potential *implementation* mechanism, to avoid adding
entirely new features to RDF core.  But as you suggest, we will still
need higher level support for querying and manipulating arrays, to make
them as easy to use as they are in other languages.

On 9/23/22 07:16, Hugh Glaser wrote:
 > I don't think talking about "lists" at all is a good term.

Fully agree.  We need arrays, not lists.

 > . . .
 > For ordered lists, Dan Brickley made a suggestion some time ago
 > (on a github issue that I can't find right now, unfortunately):
 > they could be encoded using RDF-star, like that:
 >
 >>    # Example 10 expanded
 >>    <#paper1> schema:creator
 >>        <#alice> {| ex:order 1 |},
 >>        <#bob> {| ex:order 2 |},
 >>        <#charlie> {| ex:order 3, ex:last |}.
 >>
 > It has the advantage of keeping the "simple" triple for each
 > creator, and is quite easy to query in SPARQL.

Yes, but note that that example is *different* from the basic use
of an array, because it asserts the schema:creator relation on
every element of the array -- not on the array as a whole.
It is like applying a "map" operator to an array of
people, in order to assert them all as schema:creators.

On 9/23/22 00:21, Anthony Moretti wrote:
 > all the proposals are for syntactic sugar, but please
 > ignore them, it's clear I haven't considered things well
 > enough. Apologies for any time wasted.

Not wasted!  They were useful contributions to the conversation.  Please
continue to contribute.  We are collectively figuring this stuff out as
we go along, and the process benefits from diverse perspectives and ideas.

Thanks,
David Booth

Received on Friday, 23 September 2022 13:20:21 UTC