SPARQL

Summary: A declarative query language for triple-stores using the RDF data model.

Sources: raw/chapter2

Last updated: 2026-04-15


SPARQL (SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language) predates Cypher, and Cypher’s pattern matching was actually borrowed from it (source: chapter2, p. 59).

Characteristics

  • Conciseness: SPARQL is often even more concise than Cypher for certain types of graph queries (source: chapter2, p. 59).
  • RDF Basis: It is designed for the Resource Description Framework (RDF), where properties and edges are not distinguished (source: chapter2, p. 59).