Editing Resource Description Framework (section)

=== Query and inference languages ===
{{main|RDF query language}}
The predominant query language for RDF graphs is [[SPARQL]]. SPARQL is an [[SQL]]-like language, and a [[W3C recommendation|recommendation]] of the [[W3C]] as of January 15, 2008.

The following is an example of a SPARQL query to show country capitals in Africa, using a fictional ontology:
<syntaxhighlight lang="sparql">
PREFIX ex: <http://example.com/exampleOntology#>
SELECT ?capital ?country
WHERE {
  ?x ex:cityname ?capital ;
     ex:isCapitalOf ?y .
  ?y ex:countryname ?country ;
     ex:isInContinent ex:Africa .
}
</syntaxhighlight>

Other non-standard ways to query RDF graphs include:
* [[RDQL]], precursor to SPARQL, SQL-like
* Versa, compact syntax (non–SQL-like), solely implemented in [[4Suite]] ([[Python (programming language)|Python]]).
* RQL, one of the first declarative languages for uniformly querying RDF schemas and resource descriptions, implemented in RDFSuite.<ref name=RQL>{{cite web|title=The RDF Query Language (RQL)|url=http://139.91.183.30:9090/RDF/RQL/index.html|website=The ICS-FORTH RDFSuite|publisher=ICS-FORTH|access-date=2011-03-29|archive-date=2016-03-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305224708/http://139.91.183.30:9090/RDF/RQL/index.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[SeRQL]], part of [[Sesame (framework)|Sesame]]
* [[XUL]] has a template element in which to declare rules for matching data in RDF. XUL uses RDF extensively for data binding.

SHACL Advanced Features specification<ref name="shacl-advanced-feats">{{Cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/TR/shacl-af/|title=SHACL Advanced Features|editor-first1=Holger |editor-last1=Knublauch|editor-first2=Dean|editor-last2=Allemang|editor-first3=Simon|editor-last3=Steyskal|publisher=RDF Data Shapes Working Group |publication-date=2017-06-08|access-date=2021-04-06|website=W3C|date=8 June 2017 }}</ref> (W3C Working Group Note), the most recent version of which is maintained by the SHACL Community Group,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://w3c.github.io/shacl/shacl-af/ |title=SHACL Advanced Features 1.1 |access-date=2025-03-11}}</ref> defines support for SHACL Rules, used for data transformations, inferences and mappings of RDF based on SHACL shapes.