Cheatsheets:SPARQL

Quick reference for smart people — part of our dev cheatsheets collection.

If you are new to SPARQL, see SPARQL101.

Examples featured in this cheatsheet run as-is against the public Wikidata endpoint https://query.wikidata.org/sparql. Querying another Wikibase instance is similar, but small query adjustments may be necessary depending on how each instance is set up. See the documentation for your target instance for more info.

Basic example

Natural language question:

How many dogs and cats are featured in Wikidata?

SPARQL query:

SELECT ?animal ?animalLabel (COUNT(?item) AS ?count) WHERE {
  VALUES ?animal { wd:Q144 wd:Q146 }        # dog, cat
  ?item wdt:P31 ?animal .                   # ?item is an instance of ?animal
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}
GROUP BY ?animal ?animalLabel

Result as of 2026-08-19:

dog  553
cat  239

Building a query

A query is a list of triple patterns( subject predicate object). Knowing one or two elements, you can query the rest:

Question	Known parts	Pattern
"What is the population of France?"	subject France (wd:Q142) + predicate population (wdt:P1082)	wd:Q142 wdt:P1082 ?population .
"Which things are dogs?"	predicate instance-of (wdt:P31) + object dog (wd:Q144)	?x wdt:P31 wd:Q144 .
"What is known about Einstein?"	subject Einstein (wd:Q937)	wd:Q937 ?predicate ?value .

Query forms

Form	Returns	Use when
SELECT	table of variable bindings	you want rows of data
ASK	true/false	you only need to know whether something exists
CONSTRUCT	an RDF graph (triples)	you want the result as RDF, not a table
DESCRIBE	a graph describing the resource	you want everything known about an entity

SELECT — what is the population of France?

SELECT ?population WHERE {
  wd:Q142 wdt:P1082 ?population .
}

Result:

68605616

ASK — is there at least one dog in Wikidata?

ASK WHERE { ?x wdt:P31 wd:Q144 . }

Result:

true

CONSTRUCT — every dog as RDF (first two). Each result row becomes a triple ?x wdt:P31 wd:Q144:

CONSTRUCT { ?x wdt:P31 wd:Q144 . }
WHERE { ?x wdt:P31 wd:Q144 . } LIMIT 2

Result (visualised, N-Triples style):

Q186486  wdt:P31  wd:Q144
Q280571  wdt:P31  wd:Q144

DESCRIBE — everything known about Einstein (all triples with wd:Q937 as subject or object):

DESCRIBE wd:Q937

Result (visualised, N-Triples style, first few of thousands):

Q937  rdfs:label   "Albert Einstein"@en
Q937  wdt:P569     1879-03-14
Q937  wdt:P570     1955-04-18
Q937  wdt:P21      wd:Q6581097   # male

Solution modifiers

DISTINCT — drop duplicate rows. Einstein and Obama are both male, so the gender repeats:

Without	With DISTINCT
SELECT ?genderLabel WHERE { VALUES ?person { wd:Q937 wd:Q76 } ?person wdt:P21 ?gender . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". } } Result: male male	SELECT DISTINCT ?genderLabel WHERE { VALUES ?person { wd:Q937 wd:Q76 } ?person wdt:P21 ?gender . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". } } Result: male

ORDER BY + LIMIT — the 3 most populous countries, sorted descending:

Without (arbitrary order)	With ORDER BY DESC + LIMIT
SELECT ?countryLabel ?population WHERE { VALUES ?country { wd:Q148 wd:Q30 wd:Q668 } # China, US, India ?country wdt:P1082 ?population . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". } } Result: United States 340110988 China 1404890000 India 1326093247	SELECT ?countryLabel ?population WHERE { VALUES ?country { wd:Q148 wd:Q30 wd:Q668 } ?country wdt:P1082 ?population . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". } } ORDER BY DESC(?population) Result: China 1404890000 India 1326093247 United States 340110988

LIMIT — at most n rows:

Without (all 3)	With LIMIT 2
SELECT ?countryLabel WHERE { VALUES ?country { wd:Q148 wd:Q30 wd:Q668 } ?country wdt:P1082 ?population . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". } } Result: United States China India	SELECT ?countryLabel WHERE { VALUES ?country { wd:Q148 wd:Q30 wd:Q668 } ?country wdt:P1082 ?population . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". } } LIMIT 2 Result: United States China

OFFSET — skip rows (paging). The 2nd most populous country:

With LIMIT 1 (first)	With LIMIT 1 OFFSET 1 (second)
SELECT ?countryLabel ?population WHERE { ?country wdt:P31 wd:Q6256 . ?country wdt:P1082 ?population . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". } } ORDER BY DESC(?population) LIMIT 1 Result: China 1404890000	SELECT ?countryLabel ?population WHERE { ?country wdt:P31 wd:Q6256 . ?country wdt:P1082 ?population . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". } } ORDER BY DESC(?population) LIMIT 1 OFFSET 1 Result: India 1326093247

VALUES & BIND

VALUES restricts a variable to a list; BIND computes a new variable.

SELECT ?personLabel ?birthYear WHERE {
  VALUES ?person { wd:Q937 wd:Q76 }        # Einstein, Obama
  ?person wdt:P569 ?birth .
  BIND(YEAR(?birth) AS ?birthYear)
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}

Result:

Albert Einstein  1879
Barack Obama     1961

FILTER

Category	Operators / functions
comparison	= < > <= >= !=
logical	&& || !
string	STR() CONTAINS() STRSTARTS() STRENDS() REGEX()
numeric	ABS() ROUND() FLOOR() CEIL()
date/time	YEAR() MONTH() DAY() NOW()
term tests	isIRI() isBlank() isLiteral() LANG() DATATYPE()

comparison — countries with more than 1 billion people:

SELECT ?countryLabel ?population WHERE {
  ?country wdt:P31 wd:Q6256 .
  ?country wdt:P1082 ?population .
  FILTER(?population > 1000000000)
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}

Result:

China   1404890000
India   1326093247

logical (AND) — countries with 300M–500M people:

SELECT ?countryLabel ?population WHERE {
  ?country wdt:P31 wd:Q6256 .
  ?country wdt:P1082 ?population .
  FILTER(?population > 300000000 && ?population < 500000000)
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}

Result:

United States  340110988

string (STRSTARTS) — countries whose English label starts with "S":

SELECT ?countryLabel WHERE {
  ?country wdt:P31 wd:Q6256 .
  ?country rdfs:label ?countryLabel .
  FILTER(LANG(?countryLabel) = "en" && STRSTARTS(?countryLabel, "S"))
}
LIMIT 3

Result:

Saint Kitts and Nevis
Somaliland
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

numeric (ROUND) — France's population in millions, rounded:

SELECT ?millions (ROUND(?millions) AS ?rounded) WHERE {
  wd:Q142 wdt:P1082 ?population .
  BIND(?population / 1000000 AS ?millions)
}

Result:

68.605616  69

date/time (YEAR) — Einstein's birth year:

SELECT ?personLabel (YEAR(?birth) AS ?birthyear) WHERE {
  wd:Q937 wdt:P569 ?birth .
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}

Result:

Albert Einstein  1879

term test (isIRI) — the values of wdt:P31 on a dog are entities (IRIs), not literals:

SELECT ?o WHERE {
  wd:Q144 wdt:P31 ?o .
  FILTER(isIRI(?o))
}

Result:

http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q55983715
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q136772238

Gotcha: an unbound variable in a FILTER makes the row fail (unbound ≠ false) — guard with BOUND() or restructure with OPTIONAL.

The unbound FILTER fails silently. This returns no rows, although Einstein exists and was born in 1879:

SELECT ?personLabel WHERE {
  VALUES ?person { wd:Q937 }
  ?person rdfs:label ?personLabel .
  FILTER(LANG(?personLabel) = "en" && ?birthYear = 1879)   # ?birthYear never bound
}

Result:

(no rows — the FILTER on an unbound variable dropped Einstein)

Fix: bind the variable first, then filter:

SELECT ?personLabel WHERE {
  VALUES ?person { wd:Q937 }
  ?person wdt:P569 ?birth .
  BIND(YEAR(?birth) AS ?birthYear)
  ?person rdfs:label ?personLabel .
  FILTER(LANG(?personLabel) = "en" && ?birthYear = 1879)
}

Result:

Albert Einstein

UNION, OPTIONAL, MINUS

Keyword	Meaning
UNION	pattern A OR pattern B (the default between patterns is AND, not OR)
OPTIONAL	declare a statement optional: do not omit a result entity because it has no value for statement
MINUS	negation: search for things that do NOT satisfy a given pattern

The default between triple patterns is AND (join): the same variable must satisfy all patterns. The following query returns only dogs that also have an image:

SELECT ?itemLabel WHERE {
  ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q144 .     # ?item is a dog
  ?item wdt:P18 ?image .      # AND has an image (same ?item!)
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}
LIMIT 3

Result:

Laika
Hachikō
Pickles

Because the default is AND, when you would like to find something that is/has either A "or" B, you need to use UNION

Without UNION (AND)	With UNION
SELECT ?animalLabel (COUNT(?item) AS ?n) WHERE { ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q144 . # AND: ?item must be a dog ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q146 . # AND also a cat — impossible! BIND("dog" AS ?animalLabel) } GROUP BY ?animalLabel Result: (no rows — nothing is both a dog and a cat)	SELECT ?animalLabel (COUNT(?item) AS ?n) WHERE { { ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q144 . BIND("dog" AS ?animalLabel) } UNION { ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q146 . BIND("cat" AS ?animalLabel) } } GROUP BY ?animalLabel Result: dog 553 cat 239

Use OPTIONAL when you would like to find out something when data is available, but don't care if the data is missing — Einstein (died 1955) vs Obama (alive); ?deathLabel is unbound for Obama:

SELECT ?personLabel ?deathLabel WHERE {
  VALUES ?person { wd:Q937 wd:Q76 }         # Einstein, Barack Obama
  OPTIONAL { ?person wdt:P570 ?death . }
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}

Result:

Albert Einstein  1955-04-18
Barack Obama     (unbound)

If you do not declare OPTIONAL, Barack Obama will not appear in the results, as there is logically no date of death on his record.

Use MINUS when you would like to find out about things that are/have NOT something

E.g., non-French Nobel laureates:

SELECT ?personLabel WHERE {
  ?person wdt:P166 wd:Q7191 .
  MINUS { ?person wdt:P27 wd:Q142 . }
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}
LIMIT 3

Result:

Nobel Prize winner
Adam Bernau
Santiago Carril

Gotcha: FILTER NOT EXISTS and MINUS usually give the same result, but differ when a variable is unbound — prefer MINUS for set-difference semantics.

Both express "non-French Nobel laureates"; the results are identical:

# FILTER NOT EXISTS
SELECT ?personLabel WHERE {
  ?person wdt:P166 wd:Q7191 .
  FILTER NOT EXISTS { ?person wdt:P27 wd:Q142 . }
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}
LIMIT 3

# MINUS
SELECT ?personLabel WHERE {
  ?person wdt:P166 wd:Q7191 .
  MINUS { ?person wdt:P27 wd:Q142 . }
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}
LIMIT 3

Result (both):

Nobel Prize winner
Adam Bernau
Santiago Carril

The difference appears only when a variable inside the negated pattern is unbound: FILTER NOT EXISTS tests per-row (an unbound variable never matches), while MINUS subtracts whole patterns regardless of unbound variables.

Property paths

Path	Meaning
wdt:P279/wdt:P279	two hops (sequence)
wdt:P279+	one or more hops
wdt:P279*	zero or more hops (transitive)
wdt:P279?	zero or one hop
wdt:P31	either property
^wdt:P279	inverse direction
!wdt:P279	any property except P279

A path chains several properties into one pattern. The dog example uses subclass of (wdt:P279). Compare the direct pattern with the transitive (* = zero or more hops):

Pattern	What it matches	Live example	Returns
?x wdt:P279 wd:Q144	classes that are a direct kind of dog (one hop)	?x wdt:P279 wd:Q144	Rottweiler, Swedish Vallhund — 314
?x wdt:P279* wd:Q144	classes that are dog or any kind-of-kind-of-dog (any number of hops)	?x wdt:P279* wd:Q144	adds sub-breeds like Norman Hound → scent hound → dog — 511

The * finds things several hops away that a single triple cannot:

SELECT ?thing ?thingLabel WHERE {
  ?thing wdt:P279* wd:Q144 .
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}
LIMIT 3

Result:

Lapponian Herder
autism assistance dog
diabetic alert dog

(These are sub-subclasses: Lapponian Herder → herding dog → dog.)

Gotcha: a variable that appears only inside a path is not bound, so it cannot be selected.

A two-hop path (wdt:P279/wdt:P279) finds dogs two levels down (bloodhound, beagle) — but the intermediate hop is anonymous, so there is nothing to select for it:

# Path form: intermediate hop is anonymous — ?mid is not available
SELECT ?xLabel WHERE {
  ?x wdt:P279/wdt:P279 wd:Q144 .
  ?x rdfs:label ?xLabel . FILTER(LANG(?xLabel) = "en")
}
LIMIT 3

Result:

bloodhound
beagle
Chesapeake Bay Retriever

To select the intermediate value, write two explicit triples with a variable:

# Explicit form: ?mid is selectable
SELECT ?xLabel ?midLabel WHERE {
  ?x wdt:P279 ?mid .
  ?mid wdt:P279 wd:Q144 .
  ?x rdfs:label ?xLabel . FILTER(LANG(?xLabel) = "en")
  ?mid rdfs:label ?midLabel . FILTER(LANG(?midLabel) = "en")
}
LIMIT 3

Result:

shepherd dog        pastoral dog
livestock guardian dog   pastoral dog
Canadian Eskimo Dog      inuit sledge dog

Aggregates

Aggregates collapse many rows into one per group. All examples use the same three countries (China, US, India).

COUNT — how many values (the running example counts instances per animal; here: values of wdt:P1082 for the three countries):

SELECT (COUNT(?population) AS ?n) WHERE {
  VALUES ?country { wd:Q148 wd:Q30 wd:Q668 }
  ?country wdt:P1082 ?population .
}

Result:

3

SUM — combined population of the three:

SELECT (SUM(?population) AS ?total) WHERE {
  VALUES ?country { wd:Q148 wd:Q30 wd:Q668 }
  ?country wdt:P1082 ?population .
}

Result:

3071094235

AVG — mean population of the three:

SELECT (AVG(?population) AS ?avg) WHERE {
  VALUES ?country { wd:Q148 wd:Q30 wd:Q668 }
  ?country wdt:P1082 ?population .
}

Result:

1023698078.33

MIN / MAX — smallest and largest of the three:

SELECT (MIN(?population) AS ?min) (MAX(?population) AS ?max) WHERE {
  VALUES ?country { wd:Q148 wd:Q30 wd:Q668 }
  ?country wdt:P1082 ?population .
}

Result:

340110988  1404890000

SAMPLE — one arbitrary value (useful to squash duplicates):

SELECT (SAMPLE(?countryLabel) AS ?anyCountry) WHERE {
  VALUES ?country { wd:Q148 wd:Q30 wd:Q668 }
  ?country wdt:P1082 ?population .
  ?country rdfs:label ?countryLabel .
  FILTER(LANG(?countryLabel) = "en")
}

Result:

United States

GROUP_CONCAT — Einstein's awards in one cell:

SELECT ?personLabel (GROUP_CONCAT(?awardLabel; SEPARATOR=", ") AS ?awards) WHERE {
  VALUES ?person { wd:Q937 }
  ?person wdt:P166 ?award .
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}
GROUP BY ?personLabel

Result:

Albert Einstein  Nobel Prize in Physics, …

GROUP BY + HAVING — the running example, filtered to groups with more than 400 instances:

SELECT ?animalLabel (COUNT(?item) AS ?n) WHERE {
  VALUES ?animal { wd:Q144 wd:Q146 }
  ?item wdt:P31 ?animal .
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}
GROUP BY ?animal ?animalLabel
HAVING (COUNT(?item) > 400)

Result:

dog  553

Gotcha: aggregates need GROUP BY for every non-aggregated variable. Forgetting one is a query error, not a wrong result.

Missing GROUP BY for ?animalLabel:

SELECT ?animalLabel (COUNT(?item) AS ?n) WHERE {
  VALUES ?animal { wd:Q144 wd:Q146 }
  ?item wdt:P31 ?animal .
  ?animal rdfs:label ?animalLabel .
  FILTER(LANG(?animalLabel) = "en")
}

Result:

ERROR: Bad aggregate — every non-aggregated variable needs GROUP BY

Subqueries

A query inside a query — useful for "the X with the max Y" patterns.

The most populous country, computed via a subquery:

SELECT ?countryLabel ?max WHERE {
  {
    SELECT (MAX(?population) AS ?max) WHERE {
      ?c wdt:P31 wd:Q6256 .
      ?c wdt:P1082 ?population .
    }
  }
  ?country wdt:P31 wd:Q6256 .
  ?country wdt:P1082 ?max .
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}

Result:

China  1404890000

SERVICE (labels, federation)

The label service turns entity IDs into human-readable labels — used in most queries above:

SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
# then reference ?xLabel for every ?x in the query

# Federating to another endpoint (needs the remote's own IRIs, e.g. via owl:sameAs)
SELECT ?cityLabel WHERE {
  wd:Q64 wdt:P36 ?city .
  ?city owl:sameAs ?dbpediaCity .
  SERVICE <https://dbpedia.org/sparql> {
    ?dbpediaCity rdfs:label ?cityLabel .
    FILTER(LANG(?cityLabel) = "en")
  }
}

Further reading

• Wikidata SPARQL tutorial — the recommended tutorial
• SPARQL 1.1 Query Language — official spec
• Wikidata Query Service — the example endpoint used here
• Help:Contributing/query — querying a different instance (endpoint, prefixes, label service)