jcsaaddupuy/wikidata-sparql

Wikidata SPARQL

Search engine for factual data. Find query patterns by browsing SPARQL examples below.

Python Template

Use this template with any SPARQL query from the examples:

uv run --with requests python <<'EOF'
import requests, sys, json
from requests.adapters import HTTPAdapter
from urllib3.util.retry import Retry

q = """PASTE_SPARQL_QUERY_HERE"""

s = requests.Session()
retry = Retry(total=5, backoff_factor=1, status_forcelist=[403, 429, 502, 503, 504])
s.mount('https://', HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retry))

try:
    r = s.get('https://query.wikidata.org/sparql', params={'query': q}, headers={'Accept': 'application/json'}, timeout=30)
    r.raise_for_status()
    for b in r.json().get('results', {}).get('bindings', []):
        print(f"{b.get(list(b.keys())[0])['value']}")  # Adjust field names as needed
except Exception as e:
    print(f'Error: {e}', file=sys.stderr)
    sys.exit(1)
EOF

Execution with uv run:

• total=5 - Maximum 5 retry attempts
• backoff_factor=1 - Exponential backoff: 1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, 16s
• status_forcelist=[403, 429, 502, 503, 504] - Retry on rate limits (403/429 from Wikidata) and server errors
• timeout=30 - 30 second request timeout
• Automatic dependency installation—no setup needed

Essential Concepts

Entities: Qxxx (e.g., Q90 = Paris, Q5 = human)
Properties: Pxxx (e.g., P17 = country, P31 = instance of)

Namespaces:

• wd: - entity reference (Q-ids)
• wdt: - direct property (use for 80% of queries)
• p: + ps: + pq: - statement with qualifiers (when you need dates/context)

Always:

• Include SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
• Add LIMIT to prevent timeouts
• Start simple, add filters incrementally

Discovery Workflow

Find entity IDs by keyword:

uv run --with requests python KEYWORD <<'EOF'
import requests, sys
from requests.adapters import HTTPAdapter
from urllib3.util.retry import Retry

keyword = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else 'Paris'
q = f'SELECT ?item ?itemLabel WHERE {{ ?item rdfs:label ?label. FILTER(CONTAINS(LCASE(?label), "{keyword}")). FILTER(LANG(?label) = "en"). SERVICE wikibase:label {{ bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }} }} LIMIT 20'

s = requests.Session()
retry = Retry(total=5, backoff_factor=1, status_forcelist=[403, 429, 502, 503, 504])
s.mount('https://', HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retry))

try:
    r = s.get('https://query.wikidata.org/sparql', params={'query': q}, headers={'Accept': 'application/json'}, timeout=30)
    r.raise_for_status()
    for b in r.json().get('results', {}).get('bindings', []):
        print(f"{b['itemLabel']['value']} ({b['item']['value'].split('/')[-1]})")
except Exception as e:
    print(f'Error: {e}', file=sys.stderr)
    sys.exit(1)
EOF

Explore entity properties:

uv run --with requests python Q90 <<'EOF'
import requests, sys, json
from requests.adapters import HTTPAdapter
from urllib3.util.retry import Retry

qid = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else 'Q90'
q = f'SELECT ?prop ?propLabel ?value ?valueLabel WHERE {{ wd:{qid} ?prop ?value. SERVICE wikibase:label {{ bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }} }} LIMIT 50'

s = requests.Session()
retry = Retry(total=5, backoff_factor=1, status_forcelist=[403, 429, 502, 503, 504])
s.mount('https://', HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retry))

try:
    r = s.get('https://query.wikidata.org/sparql', params={'query': q}, headers={'Accept': 'application/json'}, timeout=30)
    r.raise_for_status()
    print(json.dumps(r.json(), indent=2))
except Exception as e:
    print(f'Error: {e}', file=sys.stderr)
    sys.exit(1)
EOF

Common Properties

| Property | ID | Example | |----------|-----|---------| | instance of | P31 | human (Q5), city (Q515) | | country | P17 | France (Q142) | | population | P1082 | numeric value | | coordinate location | P625 | lat/long | | occupation | P106 | engineer (Q82955) | | date of birth | P569 | date | | subclass of | P279 | hierarchy | | start time / end time | P580 / P582 | qualifiers |

SPARQL Query Examples

Geography

Cities in France:

SELECT ?city ?cityLabel WHERE {
  ?city wdt:P31 wd:Q515.
  ?city wdt:P17 wd:Q142.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} LIMIT 50

European capitals with coordinates:

SELECT ?capital ?capitalLabel ?coord WHERE {
  ?country wdt:P31 wd:Q6256.
  ?country wdt:P36 ?capital.
  ?country wdt:P30 wd:Q46.
  ?capital wdt:P625 ?coord.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} LIMIT 30

Mountains over 8000m:

SELECT ?mountain ?mountainLabel ?elevation WHERE {
  ?mountain wdt:P31 wd:Q8502.
  ?mountain wdt:P2044 ?elevation.
  FILTER(?elevation > 8000).
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} ORDER BY DESC(?elevation)

Rivers by length:

SELECT ?river ?riverLabel ?length WHERE {
  ?river wdt:P31 wd:Q4022.
  ?river wdt:P2043 ?length.
  FILTER(?length > 1000).
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} ORDER BY DESC(?length) LIMIT 30

Science & Technology

Chemical elements by atomic number:

SELECT ?element ?elementLabel ?atomicNumber WHERE {
  ?element wdt:P31 wd:Q11344.
  ?element wdt:P1086 ?atomicNumber.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} ORDER BY ?atomicNumber LIMIT 30

Programming languages and creators:

SELECT ?lang ?langLabel ?creator ?creatorLabel WHERE {
  ?lang wdt:P31 wd:Q9143.
  ?lang wdt:P178 ?creator.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} LIMIT 30

Nobel Prize winners in Physics (after 2010):

SELECT ?person ?personLabel ?year WHERE {
  ?person wdt:P166 wd:Q38104.
  ?person p:P166 ?award.
  ?award pq:P585 ?year.
  FILTER(YEAR(?year) > 2010).
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} ORDER BY DESC(?year) LIMIT 20

Planets with orbital periods:

SELECT ?planet ?planetLabel ?orbitalPeriod WHERE {
  ?planet wdt:P31 wd:Q634.
  ?planet wdt:P2146 ?orbitalPeriod.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} ORDER BY ?orbitalPeriod

Arts & Culture

Films by Christopher Nolan:

SELECT ?film ?filmLabel ?year WHERE {
  ?film wdt:P57 wd:Q25191.
  ?film wdt:P577 ?year.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} ORDER BY ?year

Italian painters:

SELECT ?painter ?painterLabel WHERE {
  ?painter wdt:P106 wd:Q1028181.
  ?painter wdt:P27 wd:Q38.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} LIMIT 30

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Japan:

SELECT ?site ?siteLabel WHERE {
  ?site wdt:P1435 wd:Q9259.
  ?site wdt:P17 wd:Q17.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} LIMIT 50

Sports

Formula 1 World Champions (after 2010):

SELECT ?driver ?driverLabel ?year WHERE {
  ?driver wdt:P166 wd:Q9319.
  ?driver p:P166 ?award.
  ?award pq:P585 ?year.
  FILTER(YEAR(?year) > 2010).
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} ORDER BY DESC(?year)

Football clubs in England:

SELECT ?club ?clubLabel WHERE {
  ?club wdt:P31 wd:Q476028.
  ?club wdt:P17 wd:Q21.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} LIMIT 30

History & Politics

Roman Emperors with reign periods:

SELECT ?emperor ?emperorLabel ?start ?end WHERE {
  ?emperor wdt:P39 wd:Q842606.
  ?emperor p:P39 ?pos.
  ?pos pq:P580 ?start.
  OPTIONAL { ?pos pq:P582 ?end }.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} ORDER BY ?start LIMIT 30

US Presidents born after 1900:

SELECT ?president ?presidentLabel ?birth WHERE {
  ?president wdt:P39 wd:Q11696.
  ?president wdt:P569 ?birth.
  FILTER(YEAR(?birth) > 1900).
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} ORDER BY ?birth

Biology

Endangered species:

SELECT ?species ?speciesLabel WHERE {
  ?species wdt:P141 wd:Q11394.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} LIMIT 50

Mammals native to Australia:

SELECT ?animal ?animalLabel WHERE {
  ?animal wdt:P171* wd:Q7377.
  ?animal wdt:P183 wd:Q408.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} LIMIT 30

Business & Organizations

Universities ranked in top 100:

SELECT ?uni ?uniLabel ?country ?countryLabel WHERE {
  ?uni wdt:P31 wd:Q3918.
  ?uni wdt:P17 ?country.
  ?uni wdt:P6879 ?rank.
  FILTER(?rank <= 100).
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} LIMIT 50

Airlines by country:

SELECT ?airline ?airlineLabel ?country ?countryLabel WHERE {
  ?airline wdt:P31 wd:Q46970.
  ?airline wdt:P17 ?country.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} LIMIT 50

Astronomy

Satellites of Jupiter:

SELECT ?moon ?moonLabel WHERE {
  ?moon wdt:P397 wd:Q319.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} LIMIT 80

Space missions to Mars:

SELECT ?mission ?missionLabel ?launch WHERE {
  ?mission wdt:P31 wd:Q752783.
  ?mission wdt:P609 wd:Q111.
  ?mission wdt:P619 ?launch.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} ORDER BY DESC(?launch) LIMIT 20

Advanced Patterns

Population filtering (50k-100k):

SELECT ?city ?cityLabel ?population WHERE {
  ?city wdt:P31 wd:Q515.
  ?city wdt:P1082 ?population.
  FILTER(?population < 100000 && ?population > 50000).
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} ORDER BY DESC(?population) LIMIT 50

Multiple criteria (European cities 500k-1M):

SELECT ?city ?cityLabel ?population ?country ?countryLabel WHERE {
  ?city wdt:P31 wd:Q515.
  ?city wdt:P1082 ?population.
  ?city wdt:P17 ?country.
  ?country wdt:P30 wd:Q46.
  FILTER(?population > 500000 && ?population < 1000000).
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} ORDER BY DESC(?population) LIMIT 30

Aggregation (actors by film count):

SELECT ?actor ?actorLabel (COUNT(?film) AS ?filmCount) WHERE {
  ?actor wdt:P106 wd:Q33999.
  ?film wdt:P161 ?actor.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} GROUP BY ?actor ?actorLabel ORDER BY DESC(?filmCount) LIMIT 20

Transitive relationships (French cities including subcategories):

SELECT ?item ?itemLabel WHERE {
  ?item wdt:P31/wdt:P279* wd:Q515.
  ?item wdt:P17 wd:Q142.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} LIMIT 100

Time-bound qualifiers (historical positions with date ranges):

SELECT ?person ?personLabel ?start ?end WHERE {
  ?person p:P39 ?statement.
  ?statement ps:P39 wd:Q30461.
  ?statement pq:P580 ?start.
  OPTIONAL { ?statement pq:P582 ?end }.
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
} LIMIT 20

Debugging Queries

Raw entity dump (e.g., Paris):

SELECT * WHERE { wd:Q90 ?p ?o. } LIMIT 100

Statement inspection (e.g., Paris' country):

SELECT * WHERE {
  wd:Q90 p:P17 ?statement.
  ?statement ?p ?o.
} LIMIT 50

Common Pitfalls

• Missing LIMIT → timeout
• No SERVICE wikibase:label → Q-ids instead of readable labels
• Forgetting FILTER for language → labels in multiple languages
• Using p: when wdt: suffices → overcomplicated
• Assuming data exists → use OPTIONAL for properties that may not exist

Data Availability

Wikidata coverage varies by topic. For sparse data (e.g., health statistics at city level):

• Query at country/region level (better coverage)
• Use OPTIONAL for properties that may not exist
• Check for external ID properties that link to other datasets
• Consider administrative divisions (P131) for hierarchical queries

Resources

• Query Service: https://query.wikidata.org/ (visual testing & debug)
• Entity Explorer: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Qxxx
• Property Explorer: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:Pxxx