Find the alive people using SPARQL (choose the items that doesn't have an edge)

Question

Following sparql query will give the persons who are dead.

select distinct ?item{
?item <http://freebase.com/ns/common/topic/notable_types> <http://freebase.com/ns/people/person> .
?item <http://freebase.com/ns/people/deceased_person/date_of_death> ?y .
}

I want to get all the persons who are alive. How to express this in SPARQL syntax? Its more like asking, get me all the nodes which doesn't have a specific edge. Is it possible in SPARQL?

Thanks in Advance. Any help is appreciated.

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 15 '12 at 19:53

3

Sure. You can use this construction:

SELECT DISTINCT ?item {
    ?item <http://freebase.com/ns/common/topic/notable_types> <http://freebase.com/ns/people/person> .
    OPTIONAL {?item <http://freebase.com/ns/people/deceased_person/date_of_death> ?y}
    FILTER (!BOUND(?y))
}

answered Dec 15 '12 at 19:53

Lev Khomich

2,247
14
18

4

Note that this will not give you only people who are alive. It only gives you people who do not have a recorded date of death in freebase. – Antoine Zimmermann Dec 23 '12 at 09:07

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 16 '12 at 14:02

3

In SPARQL 1.1

SELECT DISTINCT ?item {
    ?item <http://freebase.com/ns/common/topic/notable_types> <http://freebase.com/ns/people/person> .
    FILTER NOT EXISTS { ?item <http://freebase.com/ns/people/deceased_person/date_of_death> ?y}
}

answered Dec 16 '12 at 14:02

AndyS

16,345
17
21

This also works! Unfortunately I couldn't accept two answers. So, given an upvote. Thanks a lot. Where can I find the documentation of all the possible things on SPARQL and SPARQL 1.1 ? Please point me if there are any nice tutorials. – nizam.sp Dec 16 '12 at 17:24

Find the alive people using SPARQL (choose the items that doesn't have an edge)

2 Answers2