Cheatsheets:SPARQL

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

SPARQL 1.1 quick syntax reference — for people who already know what SPARQL is and need reminders on syntax. All examples run as-is against the public Wikidata endpoint https://query.wikidata.org/sparql. For a proper tutorial, take the Wikidata SPARQL tutorial. For querying a different Wikibase instance (endpoint, prefixes, label service), see Help:Contributing/query.

Running example: dogs and cats

GROUP BY + COUNT + VALUES — how many of each animal are in Wikidata?

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:

dog  553
cat  239

This sheet uses that query as its running example: VALUES and GROUP BY in the first line, the animal classes (wd:Q144 dog, wd:Q146 cat) as VALUES, the pattern ?item wdt:P31 ?animal ("is an instance of") as the triple, and COUNT as the aggregate.

Building a query

A query is a list of triple patterns: subject predicate object . You know some parts, 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 .

Write the question in that order and the query writes itself:

# "What is the population of France?"
SELECT ?population WHERE {
  wd:Q142 wdt:P1082 ?population .
}

Result:

68605616

The three kinds of values a triple can hold, each shown in a query:

IRI — a resource: an entity (wd:Q142), a property (wdt:P1082), or anything else. In the pattern above, France and its population property are IRIs; the thing we don't know yet is a variable:

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

Literal — a value, not a resource: a typed number/date, or a string with a language tag. Dog's English label is the literal "dog"@en:

SELECT ?label WHERE {
  wd:Q144 rdfs:label ?label .
  FILTER(LANG(?label) = "en")
}

Result:

dog

Other literals: "42"^^xsd:integer, "2026-08-19"^^xsd:date, "chien"@fr.

Blank node — "some unnamed thing", written [] or

_:x

. Use it when a value exists but you don't care

what it is — here, dogs that have an image:

SELECT ?dogLabel WHERE {
  ?dog wdt:P31/wdt:P279* wd:Q144 .
  ?dog wdt:P18 [] .          # has an image — any image will do
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}
LIMIT 3

Result:

Diamond
Dog of Osu
Endal

Gotcha: blank-node labels (_:x) are local to one query — they are not IRIs and cannot be referenced across queries.

Gotcha: the prefixes wd:/wdt: are Wikidata's; other instances define their own (see Help:Contributing/query).

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

Each modifier shown without / with, side by side; the highlighted line(s) show what the modifier adds.

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

GROUP BY — covered with aggregation (see Aggregates).

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 ?year) 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.

VALUES & BIND

VALUES restricts a variable to a list; BIND computes a new variable. Together: birth years of two people, computed, not looked up:

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

OPTIONAL, UNION, MINUS

Keyword	Meaning
OPTIONAL	left join: keep the row, leave the variable unbound when absent
UNION	alternatives (the default between patterns is AND, not OR)
MINUS	remove rows that match the pattern

OPTIONAL — 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)

MINUS — Nobel laureates minus the French ones:

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

UNION — dogs AND cats in one result set:

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

Gotcha: the default between triple patterns is AND (join) — use UNION for alternatives.

Gotcha: FILTER NOT EXISTS differs from MINUS when variables are unbound — prefer MINUS for set-difference semantics.

Property paths

Path	Meaning
wdt:P40/wdt:P40	two hops (sequence)
wdt:P40+	one or more hops
wdt:P40*	zero or more hops
wdt:P40?	zero or one hop
wdt:P41	either property
^wdt:P40	inverse direction
!wdt:P40	any property except P40

wdt:P31/wdt:P279* — named dogs, including breeds and other subclasses ("instance of something that is a dog or a subclass of dog"):

SELECT ?thing ?thingLabel WHERE {
  ?thing wdt:P31/wdt:P279* wd:Q144 .
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
}
LIMIT 3

Result:

Theo
Tich
Tickle Em Jock

Gotcha: variables used only inside a property path (e.g. ?s wdt:P40/wdt:P40 ?o) cannot be selected.

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 mixes unrelated rows.

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)